Meeting Abstract
Understanding the origins of novel phenotypic variation is fundamental to the study of biodiversity. Many studies have investigated the role of selection in driving phenotypic change, however equally important is how phenotypic variation is produced. The overarching goal of my thesis research is to understand the genetic and developmental sources of novel skull variation in a clade of three morphologically and trophically differentiated pupfish species (genus Cyprinodon) that co-occur on San Salvador Island, Bahamas. I am using RNA-seq to understand how modifications to gene expression vary among species at a transcriptomic level. These data are being used along with information about differences in growth rates of jaw elements to identify modifications to gene expression that may underlie the origins of ecologically critical phenotypes.
