ABS 2023
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The evolutionary genetics of mouthbrooding in African cichlids
Rhiannon V. Eastment, Bob B.M. Wong, Matthew D. McGee. School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Parental care is widespread across the animal kingdom and often involves highly complex and sophisticated behavioural, morphological and physiological adaptations. One particularly complex form of parental investment is mouthbrooding, the process in which eggs and/or larvae are incubated in the parent’s mouth. Mouthbrooding is a common form of parental care in fishes and is particularly prominent in African cichlids, a uniquely diverse and species-rich clade of ray-finned fishes. Despite the importance of mouthbrooding for offspring growth and survival, it is still unclear how it has evolved repeatedly across such a diversity of fishes. In this study, we used whole genome data to investigate the origins of mouthbrooding in African cichlids. We found signatures of molecular convergence in both protein-coding and noncoding regions of the genome, suggesting that convergent genomic changes may be associated with the evolution of complex forms of parental investment. Ultimately, our study provides novel insights into the origins of an extreme form of parental investment, and highlights the importance of comparative genomics in determining the drivers of diverse reproductive mechanisms.