NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: South Slave Region

Tags: biology, fish sampling, fish population, molecular genetics, stickleback, biological evolution, genetic diversity, morphology

Objective(s): The research team is interested in the genetic and molecular basis of evolutionary change in animal form. The research goal is to determine whether the same genes control similar skeletal change in different populations and species. Stickleback fish are ideal subjects because different freshwater populations show morphological differences in skeletal structures. Variation in the pelvic spines may be the most striking of these differences: some populations of the ninespine stickleback, brook stickleback and threespine stickleback have large pelvic spines, while others have none at all. In order to test whether these similar skeletal changes also have a similar genetic basis, the researchers will collect sticklebacks with reduced pelvic spines and cross them in the laboratory with sticklebacks with complete spines. This procedure will allow them to map and eventually identify the genes responsible for skeletal differences between populations. Fox Holes Lake is unique because it is one of the few sites in the world containing ninespine and brook sticklebacks with complete reduction of the pelvic spines. Thus, laboratory crosses using fish from this lake will allow the researchers to map the genes responsible for evolutionary change in these exceptional populations.