The Anolis carolinensis genome represents the first annotated squamate genome and provides a valuable resource for those interested in anole morphology, development, physiology, systematics, and behavior (yes, even behavior!). Since the release of the original A. carolinensis draft genome in March 2007, no fewer than 20 papers have mined it for a deeper understanding of the amniote genome and its evolution. Many more labs are currently developing tools and resources for functional genomics and we can expect a number of exciting advancements in coming years. But with increased genomic information comes the need for community-wide organization and discussion about how to handle, store, label, and communicate these data. These well-known hurdles have each been faced in other communities. In addition, the community of Anolis researchers can also expect new challenges due to the number of comparative studies being conducted among populations and species (compared to research being done within relatively homogeneous strains or lines). To handle at least a few of these challenges, the Anolis Gene Nomenclature Committee was formed, comprised of researchers from diverse biological disciplines and representatives from public genomic databases. Culminating nearly two years of discussion, the first publication from this group is now available online (for free!) from BMC Genomics, outlining basic guidelines for the terminology and symbols used in future work on anole genomics. This paper represents an evolving document and is presented here to elicit further discussion.
Author: Thomas Sanger
Thom Sanger is an Assistant Professor at Loyola University in Chicago. His lab specializes on understanding the developmental bases of Anolis lizard diversity.
The schedule for the 2012 meeting of the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology was recently published and anole enthusiasts will not be disappointed. A key word search of “Anolis” yields 26 presentations, 7 posters and 19 talks! Topics range widely including presentations on the ecology, behavior, development, and genomics of anoles.
It’s October and that means Halloween is approaching. What says Halloween better than skeletons? They are everywhere this time of year! Therefore, I think that it is the right time to post a few ideas about how to prepare, label, and visualize skeletal material for studies of anole biology. (Make a few yourself and decorate your next Halloween party with them!) If you would like more detailed protocols please email me directly. If you have additional tips and tricks please add them to the comments section below.
Museum collections are filled with dried skeletal material
Dry Skeletons
Dried skeletal preparations are common in most museum collections. Sometimes this marks the fate of a damaged specimen or an animal that perished unexpectedly, but often these have been purposefully built to represent the taxonomic or morphological diversity of a group. Regardless of their origins and use, dried skeletal material makes up a significant portion of our museum collections and great effort should be taken to continue building them with well-prepared material.
Stages of limb development for A. sagrei
As lineages rapidly diversify, such as in the history of anoles, does their developmental-genetic architecture constrain the rate or direction of evolutionary change? In other words, could the processes controlling the production of variation, the variation that natural selection acts on, affect patterns of phenotypic evolution by generating some phenotypes more readily than others? While theoretical discussions like these have been prevalent for over a century, developmentally-based constraints were not formalized in the context of modern biology until the 1980’s, fueled by an influential paper by Maynard-Smith and colleagues and the re-synthesis of evolutionary and developmental biology. Since then evo-devologists have been testing the plausibility of developmental constraints by examining the developmental bases of traits that have independently evolved multiple times; phenotypes that have repeatedly evolved using the same mechanisms may be indicative of constraint (because the precise interpretation of these patterns and appropriate level of analysis are contentious I will leave further theoretical discussion of constraint to future conversations).
In a recent paper, for which I am the lead author, we set out to examine whether developmental constraints could have affected diversification of anole limb morphology.
Juvenile A. coelestinus from the Dominican Republic (photo T. Sanger)
Have you ever tried to collect elusive twig anoles? What about small juveniles living in the leaf litter or dense foliage? If you are interested in these or many other hard to find species you have almost undoubtedly gone searching for them at night when the unsuspecting lizards lie sleeping on twigs and leaves ripe for the picking. You have most likely also struggled with the decision of what light to carry during these difficult missions. From hardware store handhelds to the latest and greatest light used for international climbing expeditions, the options can be mind-boggling (as well as the price of some high end lights!). With field seasons fast approaching I decided that it would be a good idea to share some of my thoughts regarding the choice of lights used for night herping.*