Search Our Scientific Publications & Authors

J Environ Manage 2021 Apr 12;289:112560. Epub 2021 Apr 12.

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, 80401, USA.

Managing river temperature in highly urbanized stream systems is critical for maintaining aquatic ecosystems and associated beneficial uses. In this work, we updated and utilized a mechanistic river temperature model, i-Tree Cool River, to evaluate the cooling impacts of two ecological restoration scenarios: (1) an alternative streambed material limecrete and (2) shading effects of tree planting in riparian areas. The i-Tree Cool River model was modified to account for diurnal fluctuations of streambed temperature, which is relevant in shallow urban streams where lack of natural shading combined with low heat capacity of the water column can make diurnal fluctuations relatively extreme. Read More

Ecol Evol 2021 Apr 22;11(7):3264-3273. Epub 2021 Feb 22.

Department of Biosciences College of Science Swansea University Swansea UK.

Many animal personality traits have implicit movement-based definitions and can directly or indirectly influence ecological and evolutionary processes. It has therefore been proposed that animal movement studies could benefit from acknowledging and studying consistent interindividual differences (personality), and, conversely, animal personality studies could adopt a more quantitative representation of movement patterns.Using high-resolution tracking data of three-spined stickleback fish () we examined the repeatability of four movement parameters commonly used in the analysis of discrete time series movement data (time stationary, step length, turning angle, burst frequency) and four behavioral parameters commonly used in animal personality studies (distance travelled, space use, time in free water, and time near objects). Read More

J Comp Physiol B 2021 Mar 31. Epub 2021 Mar 31.

Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.

Phenotypic plasticity is predicted to permit persistence in new environments, and may subsequently evolve to enhance fitness. Colonizing environments with lower winter temperatures can lead to the evolution of lower critical thermal minima; the corresponding physiological traits associated with temperature tolerance are predicted to involve mitochondrial function. Threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) have colonized freshwater lakes along the Pacific Northwest. Read More

J Fish Biol 2021 Mar 30. Epub 2021 Mar 30.

Life Sciences Center, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania.

In the present study, we investigated the effect of acclimation duration (up to 4 h) on behavioural characteristics of taxonomically and functionally different fish species, i.e., the migratory rheophilic salmonids rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), and the non-migratory eurytopic European perch (Perca fluviatilis) and three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus). Read More

Evodevo 2021 Mar 25;12(1). Epub 2021 Mar 25.

Department of Molecular & Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, USA.

Background: Vertebrate teeth exhibit a wide range of regenerative systems. Many species, including most mammals, reptiles, and amphibians, form replacement teeth at a histologically distinct location called the successional dental lamina, while other species do not employ such a system. Notably, a 'lamina-less' tooth replacement condition is found in a paraphyletic array of ray-finned fishes, such as stickleback, trout, cod, medaka, and bichir. Read More

Mol Ecol 2021 Mar 13. Epub 2021 Mar 13.

Department of Biology, Redpath Museum, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.

Parallel evolution is considered strong evidence for natural selection. However, few studies have investigated the process of parallel selection as it plays out in real time. The common approach is to study historical signatures of selection in populations already well adapted to different environments. Read More

Genetics 2021 Mar;217(1):1-15

Redpath Museum and Department of Biology, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 0C4, Canada.

Epigenetic mechanisms underlying phenotypic change are hypothesized to contribute to population persistence and adaptation in the face of environmental change. To date, few studies have explored the heritability of intergenerationally stable methylation levels in natural populations, and little is known about the relative contribution of cis- and trans-regulatory changes to methylation variation. Here, we explore the heritability of DNA methylation, and conduct methylation quantitative trait loci (meQTLs) analysis to investigate the genetic architecture underlying methylation variation between marine and freshwater ecotypes of threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus). Read More

Ecol Evol 2021 Feb 29;11(4):1741-1755. Epub 2021 Jan 29.

School of Life Sciences University of Nottingham Nottingham UK.

The maintenance of reproductive isolation in the face of gene flow is a particularly contentious topic, but differences in reproductive behavior may provide the key to explaining this phenomenon. However, we do not yet fully understand how behavior contributes to maintaining species boundaries. How important are behavioral differences during reproduction? To what extent does assortative mating maintain reproductive isolation in recently diverged populations and how important are "magic traits"? Assortative mating can arise as a by-product of accumulated differences between divergent populations as well as an adaptive response to contact between those populations, but this is often overlooked. Read More

Heliyon 2021 Feb 8;7(2):e06160. Epub 2021 Feb 8.

National Research Center "Kurchatov Institute", 123182 Moscow, Russia.

Interspecies hybridization is driven by a complex interplay of factors where introgression plays an important role. In the present study, the transfer of genetic material, between two quite distant fish species from different genera, through spontaneous hybridization was documented with dedicated molecular and bioinformatics tools. We investigate the genomic landscape of putative stickleback-relative introgression by carefully analyzing the tractable transposable elements (TE) on the admixed genome of some individuals of two sympatric stickleback species inhabiting northwestern Russia, namely the three-spined () and the nine-spined () sticklebacks. Read More

G3 (Bethesda) 2021 Feb;11(2)

Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA.

While the cost and time for assembling a genome has drastically decreased, it still remains a challenge to assemble a highly contiguous genome. These challenges are rapidly being overcome by the integration of long-read sequencing technologies. Here, we use long-read sequencing to improve the contiguity of the threespine stickleback fish (Gasterosteus aculeatus) genome, a prominent genetic model species. Read More

Hydrobiologia 2021 4;848(3):641-650. Epub 2020 Dec 4.

Abteilung Verhaltensökologie, Zoologisches Institut, University of Bern, Wohlenstrasse 50a, 3032 Hinterkappelen, Switzerland.

Fish that perform paternal care may increase their fitness by choosing nest sites that enhance survival and development of embryos. We studied nest-site choice with respect to dissolved oxygen concentration and water temperature in males of the three-spined stickleback (), a small fish species with exclusive male parental care that usually breeds in the littoral zone of freshwaters of the Northern hemisphere. Fathers oxygenate the embryos by fanning movements of their pectoral fins. Read More

Evolution 2021 Mar 6;75(3):706-718. Epub 2021 Feb 6.

Department of Biological Sciences, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, Massachusetts, 01854.

Gene duplication is an important driver of genomic diversity that can promote adaptive evolution. However, like most mutations, a newly duplicated gene is often deleterious and removed from the genome by drift or natural selection. The early molecular changes that occur soon after duplication therefore may influence the long-term survival of gene duplicates, but relatively little empirical data exist on the events near the onset of duplication before mutations have time to accumulate. Read More

Ecol Evol 2021 Jan 9;11(2):771-783. Epub 2020 Dec 9.

Grupo Ecoloxía Animal (Lab 97) Torre CACTI Centro de Investigación Mariña Universidade de Vigo Vigo Spain.

An organism may increase its fitness by changing its reproductive strategies in response to environmental cues, but the possible consequences of those changes for the next generation have rarely been explored. By using an experiment on the three-spined stickleback (), we studied how changes in the onset of breeding photoperiod (early versus late) affect reproductive strategies of males and females, and life histories of their offspring. We also explored whether telomeres are involved in the within- and transgenerational effects. Read More

Ecotoxicol Environ Saf 2021 Mar 17;211:111812. Epub 2021 Jan 17.

Unité d'écotoxicologie in vitro et in vivo(ECOT)/UMR-I 02 SEBIO, INERIS, Parc ALATA, BP2, 60550 Verneuil-en-Halatte,France.

Due to the potential hazard of diclofenac on aquatic organisms and the lack of higher-tier ecotoxicological studies, a long-term freshwater mesocosm experiment was set up to study the effects of this substance on primary producers and consumers at environmentally realistic nominal concentrations 0.1, 1 and 10 µg/L (average effective concentrations 0.041, 0. Read More

Acta Parasitol 2021 Jan 2. Epub 2021 Jan 2.

Institute of Biology of the Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 185910, Petrozavodsk, Russia.

Purpose: During infection, the host and the parasite "communicate" with each other through various molecules, including proteins. The aim of this study was to describe the excretory-secretory proteins from the helminth Schistocephalus solidus and its intermediate host, the three-spined stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus L., which are likely to be involved in interactions between them. Read More

Integr Comp Biol 2020 Dec 31. Epub 2020 Dec 31.

Department of Integrative Biology, Ecology, Evolutionary Biology and Behavior, BEACON, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA.

The peripheral sensory systems, whose morphological attributes help determine the acquisition of distinct types of information, provide a means to quantitatively compare multiple modalities of a species' sensory ecology. We used morphological metrics to characterize multiple sensory modalities-the visual, olfactory, and mechanosensory lateral line sensory systems-for Gasterosteus aculeatus, the three-spined stickleback, to compare how sensory systems vary in animals that evolve in different ecological conditions. We hypothesized that the dimensions of sensory organs and correlations among sensory systems vary in populations adapted to marine and freshwater environments, and have diverged further among freshwater lake-dwelling populations. Read More

Ecol Evol 2020 Dec 29;10(23):13412-13426. Epub 2020 Oct 29.

Department of Bioscience Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES) University of Oslo Blindern Norway.

Freshwater colonization by threespine stickleback has led to divergence in morphology between ancestral marine and derived freshwater populations, making them ideal for studying natural selection on phenotypes. In an open brackish-freshwater system, we previously discovered two genetically distinct stickleback populations that also differ in geometric shape: one mainly found in the brackish water lagoon and one throughout the freshwater system. As shape and size are not perfectly correlated, the aim of this study was to identify the morphological trait(s) that separated the populations in geometric shape. Read More

Ecol Evol 2020 Dec 17;10(23):13297-13311. Epub 2020 Nov 17.

Redpath Museum and Department of Biology McGill University Montréal QC Canada.

Recent methodological advances have led to a rapid expansion of evolutionary studies employing three-dimensional landmark-based geometric morphometrics (GM). GM methods generally enable researchers to capture and compare complex shape phenotypes, and to quantify their relationship to environmental gradients. However, some recent studies have shown that the common, inexpensive, and relatively rapid two-dimensional GM methods can distort important information and produce misleading results because they cannot capture variation in the depth () dimension. Read More

Sci Total Environ 2021 Feb 25;757:143779. Epub 2020 Nov 25.

Department of Science and Environment, Roskilde University, Denmark.

Copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs) accumulating in sediment can be taken up by invertebrates that serve as prey for fish. Thus, it is likely that the latter are exposed to CuO NPs via the gut. However, to this day it is unknown if CuO NPs can be taken up via the gastrointestinal tract and if and in which tissues/organs they accumulate. Read More

Nat Ecol Evol 2021 02 30;5(2):251-261. Epub 2020 Nov 30.

School of Life Sciences, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, UK.

Parallelism, the evolution of similar traits in populations diversifying in similar conditions, provides strong evidence of adaptation by natural selection. Many studies of parallelism focus on comparisons of different ecotypes or contrasting environments, defined a priori, which could upwardly bias the apparent prevalence of parallelism. Here, we estimated genomic parallelism associated with components of environmental and phenotypic variation at an intercontinental scale across four freshwater adaptive radiations (Alaska, British Columbia, Iceland and Scotland) of the three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus). Read More

Mol Ecol 2021 01 18;30(2):451-463. Epub 2020 Dec 18.

Division of Biological Sciences, Section of Ecology, Behavior, & Evolution, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.

The repeated occurrence of similar phenotypes in independent lineages (i.e., parallel evolution) in response to similar ecological conditions can provide compelling insights into the process of adaptive evolution. Read More

J Anim Ecol 2020 12 15;89(12):2788-2799. Epub 2020 Nov 15.

Department of Evolution, Ecology and Behavior, School of Integrative Biology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA.

Intergenerational plasticity or parental effects-when parental environments alter the phenotype of future generations-can influence how organisms cope with environmental change. An intriguing, underexplored possibility is that sex-of both the parent and the offspring-plays an important role in driving the evolution of intergenerational plasticity in both adaptive and non-adaptive ways. Here, we evaluate the potential for sex-specific parental effects in a freshwater population of three-spined sticklebacks Gasterosteus aculeatus by independently and jointly manipulating maternal and paternal experiences and separately evaluating their phenotypic effects in sons versus daughters. Read More

J Anim Ecol 2020 12 15;89(12):2800-2812. Epub 2020 Nov 15.

Department of Evolution, Ecology and Behavior, School of Integrative Biology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA.

Transgenerational plasticity (TGP) occurs when the environment encountered by one generation (F0) alters the phenotypes of one or more future generations (e.g. F1 and F2). Read More

Proc Biol Sci 2020 11 11;287(1938):20202252. Epub 2020 Nov 11.

Département de Biologie et Institut de Biologie Intégrative et des Systèmes (IBIS), Université Laval, Québec, Canada.

Many parasites with complex life cycles modify their intermediate hosts' behaviour, presumably to increase transmission to their final host. The threespine stickleback () is an intermediate host in the cestode life cycle, which ends in an avian host, and shows increased risky behaviours when infected. We studied brain gene expression profiles of sticklebacks infected with to determine the proximal causes of these behavioural alterations. Read More

Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 2020 Nov 5;79(4):478-487. Epub 2020 Nov 5.

School of Natural Sciences, Technology and Environmental Studies, Södertörn University, Alfred Nobels allé 7, 141 89, Huddinge, Sweden.

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are psychotropic pharmaceuticals used as antidepressants. SSRIs are commonly found in surface waters in populated areas across the globe. They exert their effect by blocking the serotonin re-uptake transporter in the presynaptic nerve ending. Read More

BMC Evol Biol 2020 11 3;20(1):143. Epub 2020 Nov 3.

Ecological Genetics Laboratory, National Institute of Genetics, Mishima, Shizuoka, 411-8540, Japan.

Background: The three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) is a remarkable system to study the genetic mechanisms underlying parallel evolution during the transition from marine to freshwater habitats. Although the majority of previous studies on the parallel evolution of sticklebacks have mainly focused on postglacial freshwater populations in the Pacific Northwest of North America and northern Europe, we recently use Japanese stickleback populations for investigating shared and unique features of adaptation and speciation between geographically distant populations. However, we currently lack a comprehensive phylogeny of the Japanese three-spined sticklebacks, despite the fact that a good phylogeny is essential for any evolutionary and ecological studies. Read More

Proc Biol Sci 2020 11 4;287(1938):20201158. Epub 2020 Nov 4.

Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity, University of Münster, Hüfferstrasse 1, 48149 Münster, Germany.

Many prey species have evolved collective responses to avoid predation. They rapidly transfer information about potential predators to trigger and coordinate escape waves. Predation avoidance behaviour is often manipulated by trophically transmitted parasites, to facilitate their transmission to the next host. Read More

Ecotoxicol Environ Saf 2021 Jan 15;208:111407. Epub 2020 Oct 15.

Institut National de l'Environnement et des Risques (INERIS), UMR-I 02 SEBIO (Stress Environnementaux et Biosurveillance des milieux aquatiques), BP 2, 60550 Verneuil-en-Halatte, France. Electronic address:

The use of a multi-biomarker approach with three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) through an active biomonitoring strategy appears to be a promising tool in water quality assessment. The present work proposes to assess the efficiency of these tools in the discrimination of some sites in a large scale on the Meuse basin in Europe. The study was part of an EU program which aims to assess water quality in the Meuse across the French-Belgian border. Read More

Glob Chang Biol 2021 Jan 10;27(1):94-107. Epub 2020 Nov 10.

Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity, Animal Evolutionary Ecology, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.

Global climate change can influence organismic interactions like those between hosts and parasites. Rising temperatures may exacerbate the exploitation of hosts by parasites, especially in ectothermic systems. The metabolic activity of ectotherms is strongly linked to temperature and generally increases when temperatures rise. Read More

Ecotoxicology 2020 Nov 25;29(9):1431-1440. Epub 2020 Sep 25.

Department of Biology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.

Climate change and pollution are some of the greatest anthropogenic threats to wild animals. Transgenerational plasticity-when parental exposure to environmental stress leads to changes in offspring phenotype-has been highlighted as a potential mechanism to respond to various environmental and anthropogenic changes across taxa. Transgenerational effects may be mediated via multiple mechanisms, such as transfer of maternal hormones to eggs/foetus. Read More