Kinya Ota｜ Institute of Cellular and Organismic Biology, Academia Sinica

Our lab seeks to understand the interrelationships between large-scale morphological evolution, embryological development, and artificial selection. To study these processes, we focus on goldfish evolution and development. One may ask, why should we choose goldfish as a model system for these studies? Other researchers in this field have utilized a few different domesticated mammalian and bird species (e.g., dogs and pigeons), and like goldfish, these animals can exhibit quite unnatural phenotypic features and comprise an extensive variety of morphologically diverged strains. Additionally, the genomic backgrounds of several domesticated species have been intensively and extensively investigated in recent studies, which have greatly increased our understanding of the relationship between human activity and evolution of genotypes, genes and genomes. However, the comparative ease of handling and observing goldfish embryos is a major advantage when studying how artificial selection relates to development. Since some goldfish strains have extreme ornamental morphological features, this species provides a unique opportunity for researchers to simultaneously apply genetics and developmental biology in investigations of large-scale morphological evolution. Futhermore, highly diverged goldfish strains can be readily mated together in order to investigate the drastic evolutionary process of modifying skeletal morphology and related features. After crossing the different goldfish morphotypes, the embryos can be easily monitored throughout development. Thus, we believe goldfish is the best vertebrate animal model with which to simultaneously apply genetics and embryology in our efforts to understand how strong artificial selective pressures can modify the developmental process. In our view, the goldfish presents unparalleled opportunities for evodevo studies relevant to the current Anthropocene context.