Meeting Abstract

P2.69  Tuesday, Jan. 5  THE GENERATION OF TROPHIC NOVELTY THROUGH HYBRIDIZATION PARNELL, N F*; STREELMAN, J T; Georgia Tech gth877n@mail.gatech.edu

The macro- and micro-evolutionary generation of novelty has long been a topic of interest in biology. Recently a line of research has focused on interspecific hybridizations as a vector for producing novel characteristics. Although long thought to be an evolutionary “dead-end” hybridization has been found to be fundamental to adaptation and speciation in several groups of organisms, and potentially a strong driving force during adaptive radiations. Hybrid offspring that exhibit transgression in traits (values outside the parental ranges) have gained interest in these studies as recent evidence suggests that transgression is a relatively common result of hybridization. Transgression appears to be most prevalent among hybrids in which parental species are more similar in the trait(s) of interest and in which the trait is complex and/or modular in its design and function. Here we examine several traits in interspecific hybrids from two Lake Malawi cichlid species. We focus on a set of trophic traits that are similar and disparate between parental species and investigate the frequency of transgression in them as well as the potential for genetic and developmental links among them.