TY  - JOUR
A1  - Hilgers, Leon
A1  - Hartmann, Stefanie
A1  - Pfaender, Jobst
A1  - Lentge-Maass, Nora
A1  - Marwoto, Ristiyanti M.
A1  - von Rintelen, Thomas
A1  - Hofreiter, Michael
T1  - Evolutionary divergence and radula diversification in two ecomorphs from an adaptive radiation of freshwater snails
T2  - Genes
N2  - (1) Background: 
Adaptive diversification of complex traits plays a pivotal role in the evolution of organismal diversity. In the freshwater snail genus Tylomelania, adaptive radiations were likely promoted by trophic specialization via diversification of their key foraging organ, the radula.

(2) Methods: 
To investigate the molecular basis of radula diversification and its contribution to lineage divergence, we used tissue-specific transcriptomes of two sympatric Tylomelania sarasinorum ecomorphs.

(3) Results: 
We show that ecomorphs are genetically divergent lineages with habitat-correlated abundances. Sequence divergence and the proportion of highly differentially expressed genes are significantly higher between radula transcriptomes compared to the mantle and foot. However, the same is not true when all differentially expressed genes or only non-synonymous SNPs are considered. Finally, putative homologs of some candidate genes for radula diversification (hh, arx, gbb) were also found to contribute to trophic specialization in cichlids and Darwin's finches.

(4) Conclusions: 
Our results are in line with diversifying selection on the radula driving Tylomelania ecomorph divergence and indicate that some molecular pathways may be especially prone to adaptive diversification, even across phylogenetically distant animal groups.
KW  - speciation
KW  - adaptive radiation
KW  - molluscs
KW  - RNAseq
KW  - regulatory evolution
KW  - trophic specialization
Y1  - 2022
UR  - https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/63524
SN  - 2073-4425
VL  - 13
IS  - 6
PB  - MDPI
CY  - Basel
ER  -