Ancient Admixture in Freshwater Halfbeaks of the Genus Nomorhamphus in Southeast Sulawesi.

Freshwater halfbeaks of the genus Nomorhamphus (Zenarchopteridae) uniquely diversified on Sulawesi Island, where tectonic movements have been very active since the Pliocene. Most species of this genus have quite limited distributions, which indicates that geographic isolations have contributed to their diversification. In this study, we demonstrated that secondary contacts and resultant admixtures between long-isolated species/populations may have also been important. We found that the mitochondrial phylogeny of a group of Nomorhamphus in Southeast Sulawesi was discordant with the nuclear phylogeny. Most notably, individuals in the upper and lower streams of the Moramo River, a small river in this region, clustered with each other in the mitochondrial phylogeny but not in the nuclear phylogeny; in the latter, the lower-stream individuals formed a clade with individuals in the Anduna River, a different river with no present water connection to the Moramo River. Phylogenetic network and population structure analyses using genomic data obtained from RNA-seq revealed that the lower-stream Moramo population admixed with the upper-stream Moramo lineage in ancient times. These findings indicate that the observed mito-nuclear discordance was caused by mitochondrial introgression and not incomplete lineage sorting. The phylogenetic network also revealed several other admixtures between ancient lineages. Repeated admixtures were also evidenced by topological incongruence in population trees estimated using the RNA-seq data. We propose that activities of many fault systems dissecting Southeast Sulawesi caused repeated secondary contact.

Variation in Mating Behaviors Between a Tropical and a Temperate Species of Medaka Fishes.

In medaka fishes, the family Adrianichthyidae, tropical species are known to be sexually more dimorphic than temperate species. If this reflects that tropical species are exposed to stronger sexual-selection pressures than temperate species, mating behaviors may also differ between tropical and temperate species. Our mating experiments revealed that males of Oryzias woworae, a tropical species of the family, perform "chasing" another male more frequently than males of O. sakaizumii, a temperate congener, and that male-male "combats" of O. woworae tended to be followed by chasing compared with combats of O. sakaizumii males, indicating that O. woworae males are more aggressive in male-male interactions than O. sakaizumii males. Males of O. woworae also performed "approaching" a female and "mating dance" more frequently than O. sakaizumii males, indicating that O. woworae males are also more active in courting females. Males of O. sakaizumii often omitted "mating dance" in their mating sequences, supporting this view. Moreover, O. woworae females tended to reject male "wrapping", an attempt for fertilization, more frequently than O. sakaizumii females, suggesting that O. woworae females are choosier in mating than O. sakaizumii females. These findings are concordant with the view that O. woworae is exposed to stronger sexual-selection pressures than O. sakaizumii.

Convergent evolution of body color between sympatric freshwater fishes via different visual sensory evolution.

Although there are many examples of color evolution potentially driven by sensory drive, only few studies have examined whether distinct species inhabiting the same environments evolve similar body colors via shared sensory mechanisms. In this study, we tested whether two sympatric freshwater fish taxa, halfbeaks of the genus Nomorhamphus and ricefishes of the genus Oryzias in Sulawesi Island, converge in both body color and visual sensitivity. After reconstructing the phylogeny separately for Nomorhamphus and Oryzias using transcriptome-wide sequences, we demonstrated positive correlations of body redness between these two taxa across environments, even after phylogenetic corrections, which support convergent evolution. However, substantial differences were observed in the expression profiles of opsin genes in the eyes between Nomorhamphus and Oryzias. Particularly, the expression levels of the long wavelength-sensitive genes were negatively correlated between the taxa, indicating that they have different visual sensitivities despite living in similar light environments. Thus, the convergence of body colorations between these two freshwater fish taxa was not accompanied by convergence in opsin sensitivities. This system presents a case in which body color convergence can occur between sympatric species via different mechanisms.