Transcriptomes of rainwater killifish (Lucania parva) and bluefin killifish (Lucania goodei)

Our goals were to compare the transcriptomes of two closely related species of killifish, the rainwater and bluefin killifish. These two species are interesting because one is a freshwater species and the other is euryhaline meaning that it can tolerate both fresh and saltwater. We compared the areas of the genome where these two species differ to determine if the areas involved in species differences are also involved in osmoregulation. We also compared populations within species - particularly in the rainwater killifish. This species has permanent freshwater and saltwater populations. We asked whether these populations also showed pronounced divergence in ion/osmoregulatory loci.

本研究旨在比较两种近缘鳉鱼（killifish）——雨鳉与蓝鳍鳉的转录组（transcriptome）。二者之所以值得关注，原因在于其一为淡水物种，另一则为广盐性（euryhaline）物种，可同时耐受淡水与咸水环境。本研究对二者基因组（genome）的差异区域展开比较，以明确物种间的差异区域是否也参与渗透压调节（osmoregulation）。本研究还针对物种内的种群展开比较，其中以雨鳉为研究重点。该物种拥有永久淡水与咸水种群。本研究旨在探究这些种群在离子/渗透压调节基因座（locus）上是否存在显著分化。