局域适应，作为生物适应环境的重要方面，在生物多样性塑造、物种遗传变异维持、物种分布范围扩张以及促进生态物种形成方面起着重要作用。本项目以我们最新研究发现可能存在局域适应的、局限分布于青藏高原横断山区水系的石爬鮡属鱼类为研究对象，运用形态学、生态学、演化基因组学、生物信息学以及统计学等多学科的理论与方法，试图探明石爬鮡属鱼类在青藏高原横断山区水系局域适应的分子基础，为进一步探讨青藏高原极端环境下物种的适应与演化奠定基础。具体研究内容包括：1）样品采样点海拔高度与水流速度等环境因子数据的采集；2）基于传统形态学与几何形态测量法的表型特征分析；3）基于胃肠内含物鉴定结合DNA条形码数据的食性分析；4）基于RAD测序数据的基因组水平群体遗传分析；5）基于FST的遗传分化离群分析以及环境因子、表型特征与SNP位点间的相关性分析。

Local adaptation, as an important aspect of species’ adaptation to their habitats, plays an important role in shaping species diversity, contributing to the maintenance of genetic variation, facilitating species range expansion and promotion of ecological speciation. In the previous studies, we found that there may exist local adaptation or be in the process of speciation in the Euchiloglanis fish species, a species complex belonging to the Sisoridae in Siluriformes, which is distributed in the drainages among Hengduan Mountains in Eastern Tibetan Plateau. Therefore, in this project, using this species complex as a model, we will combine the theory and methods of morphology, ecology, evolutionary genomics, bioinformatics and statistics together, trying to investigate the molecular basis of local adaptation of Euchiloglanis fish species in the river system of Hengduan Mountains, and pave the way for further research in species’ adaptation and evolution under the extreme environmental conditions of the Tibetan Plateau. Specific studies include: 1) collecting data for such as altitude and water current at each sampling location; 2) measurements and analyses of fish body shape and gill raker morphology based on traditional morphological methods as well as geometric morphometric methods; 3) diet analysis based on stomach and gut content identification combined with contents’ DNA barcoding analysis; 4) genome-wide population genetic analysis based on RAD-seq data; and 5) tests for local selection by searching for increased population differentiation using FST-based outlier analysis, and tests for associations between SNP loci, morphometric traits and environmental variables.