Líffræðifélag Íslands
Líffræðiráðstefnan 2015
Erindi/veggspjald / Talk/poster V37
Kristen Marie Westfall (2), Hildur Magnúsdóttir(1,3), Zophonías O. Jónsson (3), Snæbjörn Pálsson (3) og Erla Björk Örnólfsdóttir (1)
1. Háskólinn á Hólum, 2. Vör - Sjávarrannsóknarsetur við Breiðafjörð, 3. Líf - og umhverfisvísindadeild, Háskóli Íslands
Kynnir / Presenter: Hildur Magnúsdóttir
Tengiliður / Corresponding author: Hildur Magnúsdottir (him5@hi.is)
Associations between genetic composition and habitat through the study of patterns of genetic change and adaptation are sought by both evolutionary biology and ecology. Molluscan shells exhibit a wide variety of phenotypic traits that are easily measured, e.g. colour, thickness and shape, and as the mantle is the only organ that secretes proteins involved in shell formation, this simplifies the study of relative genomic and plastic contributions to phenotypic determination. In Breiðafjörður, the common whelk (Buccinum undatum) exhibits extreme variation in shell colour, shape, ridges, banding and thickness. While the common whelk is widely distributed throughout the North Atlantic, Breiðafjörður is the only known part of the species distribution with a wide range of colour morphs and stark differences in shell traits over small geographic distances. This natural experimental system provides an unprecedented opportunity to study the relative roles of genotypic polymorphism and plasticity in shell trait determination. The aim of the presented project is to determine to what extent shell trait variation is controlled by genotypic, transcriptomic, or environmental variation. Further, the signatures of selection acting upon genes correlated with shell trait variation will be unravelled along with the phylogeographic patterns of genomic variation across the species distribution. An overview of the context and methodology of this current research project is presented.