Tidepool Copepod

Linkage map

In the initial stages of linkage map development, we found that microsatellites behaved in the expected fashion, but AFLP markers showed non-mendelian inheritance patterns, particularly in backcross hybrids. A methylation-sensitive AFLP  technique shows that T. californicus populations have fixed differences in cytosine methylation at shared loci. Further, changes in methylation were found in F1 and backcross hybrids. This is intriguing, since methylation has been shown to play a role in a variety of processes including transcription regulation, replication initiation, X-chromosome inactivation, nucleolar dominance, DNA mismatch repair, recombination and carcinogenesis. Ph.D. student Annie Hwang is currently following up on these initial findings.