Mee Jonathan A, Yap Emily, Wuitchik Daniel M
Department of Biology Mount Royal University Calgary Alberta Canada.
Department of Biology Boston University Boston Massachusetts USA.
Ecol Evol. 2023 Sep 13;13(9):e10526. doi: 10.1002/ece3.10526. eCollection 2023 Sep.
Pelvic spine polymorphism occurs in several species in the stickleback family (Gasterosteidae). Given the similar phenotypic polymorphisms in multiple stickleback species, we sought to determine the extent of parallelism in the ecological correlates of pelvic spine reduction. Based on a metabarcoding analysis of brook stickleback gut contents in two polymorphic populations, we found that significant diet differences were associated with pelvic spine reduction, but we found no clear or consistent trend supporting a tendency for benthic feeding in pelvic-reduced brook sticklebacks. These results contrast with those found in threespine sticklebacks where pelvic spine reduction is often associated with a benthic diet. Hence, we found non-parallel consequences of spine polymorphism across species. Furthermore, a difference in gill raker morphology has been frequently observed between ecomorphs with different diets in many fish species. However, we found no evidence of any difference in gill raker morphology associated with pelvic spine polymorphism in brook sticklebacks.
骨盆棘多态性存在于棘背鱼科（刺鱼科）的多个物种中。鉴于多种棘背鱼物种存在相似的表型多态性，我们试图确定骨盆棘减少的生态关联中的平行程度。基于对两个多态性种群的溪刺鱼肠道内容物的宏条形码分析，我们发现显著的饮食差异与骨盆棘减少有关，但我们没有发现明确或一致的趋势支持骨盆减少的溪刺鱼有底栖摄食倾向。这些结果与三刺鱼的结果形成对比，在三刺鱼中，骨盆棘减少通常与底栖饮食有关。因此，我们发现跨物种的棘多态性有非平行的结果。此外，在许多鱼类中，经常观察到不同食性的生态形态之间鳃耙形态存在差异。然而，我们没有发现任何证据表明溪刺鱼的鳃耙形态与骨盆棘多态性有关。
