Comparative transcriptomics reveal that adaptive evolution in immune genes drives the local adaptation and speciation of schizothoracine fish

The schizothoracine fish, the largest and most diverse taxon within the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) ichthyofauna, are widespread in drainages throughout the QTP. These fish thus serve as an ideal model group with which to investigate how molecular evolution drives local adaptation during speciation. Here, we performed an interspecific comparative analysis of the transcriptomes of 13 schizothoracine fish species, and identified the key positively selected genes (PSGs) associated with significantly enriched functions and metabolite pathway acting on the specific lineages (or species) in the schizothoracine fish.