巴塞尔大学Patrick Tschopp小组取得一项新突破。他们的最新研究提出了超多样化慈鲷肠道的适应性细胞进化。2026年5月13日出版的《自然》杂志发表了这项成果。

研究小组研究了坦噶尼喀湖中最大的适应性辐射之一的脊椎动物肠道中的饮食适应性。通过对24种摄食习性不同的坦噶尼坎鲷的单细胞转录组学数据，并将其与生态形态学和基因组信息相结合，课题组研究人员发现，在细胞水平上，饮食适应主要涉及前肠细胞。特别是，该研究团队表明，肠前细胞的相对丰度以及该细胞群体中的基因表达谱是在快速营养特化的反应中进化的，这些与饮食相关的适应是由快速进化的细胞群体特异性基因驱动的。总的来说，他们的研究结果表明，肠上皮细胞组成和细胞类型特异性分子组成的改变为营养特化提供了基础，表明生态适应针对多层生物组织。

研究人员表示，动物有效追踪和消化食物的能力对它们的生存至关重要，而对不同饮食的专业化是这一群体多样化的主要驱动力。尽管在这种背景下，摄食结构的进化已经得到了广泛的研究，但消化道适应的性质和程度仍然知之甚少。

附：英文原文

Title: Adaptive cellular evolution in the intestine of hyperdiverse cichlid fishes

Author: Fages, Antoine, Luxey, Mava, Ronco, Fabrizia, Huyghe, Charlotte E. T., Fischer, Sabrina, Viktorin, Gudrun, Menon, P. Navaneeth Krishna, Indermaur, Adrian, Salzburger, Walter, Tschopp, Patrick

Issue&Volume: 2026-05-13

Abstract: The ability of animals to efficiently track down and digest food is crucial for their survival, and the specialization to different diets is a major driver of diversification in this group1,2,3. Although the evolution of feeding structures has been studied extensively in this context4,5,6, the nature and extent of adaptations in the digestive tract remain poorly understood. Here, we examine dietary adaptations in the intestines of one of the largest adaptive radiations in vertebrates, the cichlid fishes of Lake Tanganyika. By generating comprehensive single-cell transcriptomic data for 24 Tanganyikan cichlid species with divergent feeding habits, and integrating this with eco-morphological and genomic information, we uncover that, at the cellular level, dietary adaptations primarily involve anterior enterocytes. In particular, we show that the relative abundances of anterior enterocytes as well as the gene expression profiles in this cell population evolved in response to rapid trophic specializations, and that these diet-related adaptations are driven by fast-evolving, cell-population-specific genes. Overall, our findings show that alterations in intestinal epithelium cell composition and in the cell-type-specific molecular makeup provided the substrate for trophic specializations, demonstrating that ecological adaptations target multiple layers of biological organization.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10494-8

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10494-8