A significant puzzle in evolution is how life manages to survive in unpredictable and severe settings. Extreme settings for aquatic species include those with limited water, such as the central Australian deserts. According to experts, adaptations in the genome linked to the extremely dry environments of Australia’s outback guarantee desert fish populations thrive in severe conditions.
According to scientists from Flinders University’s Molecular Ecology Lab and their collaborators from University Laval in Quebec and University of Canberra, adaptations in the genome linked to the extremely dry conditions of Australia’s outback ensure desert fish populations survive in harsh conditions.
The researchers concentrated on Desert Rainbowfish (Melanotaenia splendida tatei) populations taken from across Australia’s desert. Variations in the Desert Rainbowfish genomes were matched to data from satellite pictures concerning the amount of surface water in central Australia. They discovered that populations from the desert’s drier sections are more isolated and smaller, but they also have a greater capacity to adapt to severe and arid circumstances.
“This contradicts popular belief that tiny populations are evolutionary dead ends. Even in the most harsh and unpredictable conditions on the planet, life finds a way “Professor Luciano Beheregaray, Research Section Lead of Ecology, Evolution, and Environment at Flinders University, agrees.
These findings have implications for conserving species like the desert goby and related fish, which are threatened by habitat loss and degradation as a result of human use of the desert’s restricted water resources.
Dr. David Chapple
“This is crucial because desert waterholes are continually drying up, and the fish need to constantly track the whereabouts of water in their surroundings to survive in the long term,” Ms Mossop explained. The researchers used information stored in the goby’s DNA to investigate how the fish moves around its dry landscape: an effective technique because it captures signs of former environments in present organisms.
Fish out of water: Genomic insights into the persistence of rainbowfish populations in the desert (by Catherine Attard, Jonathan Sandoval-Castillo, Chris Brauer, Peter Unmack, David Schmarr, Louis Bernatchez, and Luciano Beheregaray, published in the journal Evolution) is arguably the first paper in the world to explain how fish can survive and evolve in a desert environment.
Maintaining a wide gene pool is vital for populations to evolve in response to environmental changes, but understanding how small populations of desert fish survive, particularly when located in isolated pockets of water, has remained a mystery.
“A narrow gene pool can lead to inbreeding and poor health, which is occasionally seen in endangered species,” explains Flinders University’s Molecular Ecology Lab lead author Dr Catherine Attard. “However, we discovered that desert fish in Australia can survive by adapting to harsh surroundings, spawning, and spreading during rare flooding occurrences.”
When fish disperse over temporary streams and floodwaters, aridity-adapted genes can proliferate. These fish, along with their adaptive genetic make-up, are then prepared for the next drought.
The most intriguing change was found in a gene that encodes a guanine nucleotide-binding protein. These proteins are employed in fish to sense salinity and water flow, as well as to adjust light sensitivity for vision. Different proteins found in fish from arid western areas may help them strengthen their environmental sensors.
Aridity-adapted genes may allow organisms to persist when dry regions expand and experience more intense climatic variations as a result of future climate change. “Our findings imply that adaptations and the conservation of genetic variety can occur even in tiny populations, as long as natural connection occurs during floods,” says Professor Beheregaray.
“These findings have implications for conserving species like the desert goby and related fish, which are threatened by habitat loss and degradation as a result of human use of the desert’s restricted water resources,” said senior co-author Dr David Chapple.
The research team will now expand on these findings by investigating how the desert goby’s behavior aids them in their perilous cross-desert migrations. The discovery that tolerance to severe settings occurs even in tiny populations has implications for climate change adaptation research and conservation science.
