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Recent sympatric speciation involving habitat-associated nuptial colour polymorphism in a crater lake cichlid

  • ADVANCES IN CICHLID RESEARCH III
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Abstract

Even though the idea that modes of speciation other than allopatric speciation are possible in nature is now widespread, compelling examples of ecological speciation in sympatry remain rare. We studied an undescribed radiation of haplochromine cichlids in a young crater lake in western Uganda, and in the small river that is nearby but has currently no known surface connection to the lake. We describe two different modes of speciation that occurred in this cichlid lineage within the past 1,500–10,000 years. Not constrained by gene flow, allopatric divergence between river and lake cichlids affects many different morphological traits as well as nuptial colouration—muted in the river, but intensified and polymorphic in lake cichlids—and neutral genetic differentiation. More surprisingly, we demonstrate a case for sympatric speciation within the small lake that is associated with dramatic differences in male breeding colouration (yellow with bright red-chest versus bright blue) and subtle differences in microhabitat, feeding regime and morphology. Reproductive isolation by assortative mating is suggested by significant differentiation between yellow and blue males in neutral markers of gene flow despite complete sympatry. We hypothesize speciation is mediated by divergent selection on sexual signalling between microhabitats.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Jackson Efitre and the dedicated field assistants of the Kibale Fish Project for help with fieldwork, the students of the Tropical Biology Association Kibale Course of 2003 for help with stomach content analyses, and Rachel Tongue for help with morphometric distances. The genetic lab work was supported by Swiss National Science Foundation Grants 3100A0-118293/1 and 31003A_163338 to OS. Field work conducted by LJC was supported by Funding for this research was provided from the National Science Foundation and the Wildlife Conservation Society. Permission to conduct research in Uganda was acquired from the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, 3012, Bern, Switzerland

    Melissa Lemoine, Salome Mwaiko, Marcel Haesler & Ole Seehausen

  2. EAWAG Center of Ecology, Evolution and Biochemistry, 6047, Kastanienbaum, Switzerland

    Melissa Lemoine, Salome Mwaiko, Marcel Haesler & Ole Seehausen

  3. Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, CSIC, José Gutierrez Abascal 2, 28006, Madrid, Spain

    Marta Barluenga

  4. Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Basel, 4056, Basel, Switzerland

    Kay Lucek

  5. Department of Biology, McGill University, Montréal, QC, Canada

    Lauren J. Chapman

  6. Department of Anthropology and McGill School of Environment, McGill University, Montréal, QC, Canada

    Colin A. Chapman

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  1. Melissa Lemoine
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  2. Marta Barluenga
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Correspondence to Ole Seehausen.

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Guest editors: S. Koblmüller, R. C. Albertson, M. J. Genner, K. M. Sefc & T. Takahashi / Advances in Cichlid Research III: Behavior, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

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Lemoine, M., Barluenga, M., Lucek, K. et al. Recent sympatric speciation involving habitat-associated nuptial colour polymorphism in a crater lake cichlid. Hydrobiologia 832, 297–315 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-018-3746-1

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