October 23, 2006 - Cichlid Genome Update #8 (Newsletter)
NIH will sequence tilapia and 3 haplochromine cichlids!
USDA funds sequencing of 100,000 tilapia ESTs
JGI sequences in NCBI Trace Archive
The three major lakes in East Africa (Malawi, Tanganyika and Victoria) each harbor a separate radiation of several hundred species. The radiations in Lakes Malawi and Victoria have occurred in roughly the last million years, making this the most rapid rate of speciation known in vertebrates, and a fascinating system for studying the mechanisms of evolution and speciation. These fishes are also excellent model organisms for studying the genetic and developmental basis for differences in morphology and behavior.
The more than 20,000 species of bony fishes represent more than half of all living vertebrates. Among these, the perch-like fishes (Order Perciformes) include more than 9,300 species (Nelson, 1994). A group of laboratories around the world are working together to develop genomic resources for one of the most diverse groups of Perciformes, the family Cichlidae (>1500 species). Cichlids (pronounced 'siklids') are found in tropical regions of the Americas, Africa, Madagascar and Sri Lanka, but achieve their greatest diversity in the Great Lakes of East Africa.
Tilapia (Oreochromis spp.) are cichlid fishes which shared a common ancestor with the East African lake flocks about 10 million years ago. They are one of the most important species in aquaculture today, with world-wide production exceeding 1 billion pounds per year. Increasingly popular in western cuisine, tilapia are a particularly important source of protein in less developed countries. Recipes!
The descriptions and links below will lead you to the genome research tools already developed for studies of these fishes, including genetic linkage maps, cDNA clone libraries, and a physical map based on the restriction fingerprints of 35,000 BAC clones.
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