Patroon en proces van de evolutie van de lichaamsgrootte bij vissen, met de nadruk op Afrikaanse cichliden

Different groups of fish from the African great lakes are adaptively radiated with the shift of habitat, feeding ecology and behaviour. An Ideal framework to understand the mechanism underlying this evolution will be studying the polymorphic cichlid fish. And for that studying the behaviour and adaptation ecology of the rock-dwelling cichlids of the tribe Lamprologini, the tribe whose species are normally seen around the rocky surface. Some of their population can be seen occupying and breeding the empty snail shells of the genus Neothauma. These species generally seek protection in those small shells in transition from the rock-dwellers. Evolutionary changes include variation in their genome and change in transcription factors along with body size and shape. To get more information I will combine the genomic, morphological and behavioural data. To get the genomic data, I will sequence the Lamprologus callipterus and Neolamprologus pulcher from freshly collected specimens. For morphological characteristics, I will clear and stain the individuals of both sexes and both the different size specimens. Maturity data of the different morphological specimens will also be obtained. These approaches will help me to test different angles which are related to adaptation to new environments. I will try to see the pattern of morphological, behavioural and life-history traits and how these traits are incorporated with the genotypic level such as chromosome numbers, and changes in loci.