Body shape, color and behavior often evolve together as species adapt to their environment. By studying wall lizards in the Mediterranean area, researchers in Lund have shown how a unique cell type in vertebrates may have played a key role in this intertwined evolution.
Adaptation, or adaptation, is a genetic change that gives higher ability in the prevailing environment. Adaptations can be physical, behavioral or physiological. But how this works on a more complex, genetic level is shrouded in obscurity. In a new study, which is published in the scientific journal Science Advances, a research team has studied green, large, aggressive and sexually prominent wall lizards in the Mediterranean area through fieldwork and DNA analysis and discovered a large number of genes that are behind the lizard’s Hulk appearance.
– All tissues and organs relevant to the Hulk appearance develop from so-called neural crest cells that form in the early embryo. We believe that the genes that code shape, color and behavior are regulated together and therefore also evolve together, says Nathalie Feiner, evolutionary researcher at Lund University.
In their work, Nathalie Feiner’s and Professor Tobias Uller’s research group investigated a wall lizard with green-black coloring and an impressive body size. Males with this appearance – which appeared many thousands of years ago near present-day Rome – have been shown to be superior to males with other color combinations. Something that led to the Hulken lizards spreading across Italy.
– Knowledge of the importance of neural crest cells comes almost entirely from a few model organisms, such as the mouse. We are now mapping this cell type in lizard embryos to understand how phenomena such as Hulken lizards arise, says Nathalie Feiner.
In the coming years, Feiner and his team will carry out more field trips, set up breeding groups and perform advanced laboratory analyses, including with the gene scissor technology CrispR-Cas9. All to get to the bottom of the question of what role the neural crest cells play in the intertwined development of colors, shapes and behaviors.
– Our focus is lizards, but our findings can probably apply to all animals with neural crest cells, which includes around 70,000 species of vertebrates. Although our work provides a possible answer to how part of evolution works, it is also the beginning of many new areas of research, she says.
In addition to Lund University, the following universities and organizations have been involved in the study: Chengdu Institute of Biology, University of Tasmania, Uppsala Genome Centre.
The study is published in Science Advances: “Adaptive introgression reveals the genetic basis of a sexually selected syndrome in wall lizards”
For more information contact:
Nathalie Feiner, researcher
Department of Biology, Lund University
+46 721 871 015
Press contact:
073 027 58 90
Tags: Green aggressive sexually successful Hulken lizard evolutionary keys
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