Butterfly genome reveals promiscuous exchange of mimicry adaptations among species

ffrench-Constant, Richard H.; Dasmahapatra, Kanchon Kk; Walters, James R.; Whibley, Annabel; Davey, John W.; Briscoe, Adriana D.; Zimin, Aleksey V.; Ritika, C.; Salazar, Camilo; Owen McMillan, W.; Hughes, Daniel S. T.; Martin, Simon H.; Ferguson, Laura C.; Lewis, James Jj; Nadeau, Nicola J.; Adler, Sebastian; Counterman, Brian A.; Ahn, Seung-Joon; Dalmay, Tamas; Baker, Dean A.; Baxter, Simon W.; Gilbert, Lawrence E.; Palmer, William J.; Gordon, Karl; Papa, Riccardo; Chamberlain, Nicola L.; Heckel, David G.; Papanicolaou, Alexie; Pauchet, Yannick; Hines, Heather M.; Ray, David A.; Hoff, Katharina J.; Rosser, Neil; Yorke, James A.; Mapleson, Daniel; Chauhan, Ritika; Holland, Peter W. H.; Salzberg, Steven L.; Maroja, Luana S.; Yuan, Furong; Jiggins, Francis M.; Supple, Megan A.; Jacquin-Joly, Emmanuelle; Martin, Arnaud; Surridge, Alison; Jones, Robert T.; Tenger-Trolander, Ayse; Moxon, Simon; Thomson, Marian; Kapan, Durrell D.; Vogel, Heiko; Kersey, Paul; Lamas, Gerardo; Wilkinson, Paul A.; Lawson, Daniel; Wilson, Derek; Ongeri, Fiona; Pu, Ling; Qu, Jiaxin; Thornton, Rebecca L.; Eland, Cathlene; Worley, Kim C.; Balmuth, Alexi L.; Gharbi, Karim; Wu, Yuan-Qing; Mathew, Tittu; Gibbs, Richard A.; Muzny, Donna M.; Han, Yi; Jayaseelan, Joy C.; Kovar, Christie; Reed, Robert D.; Scherer, Steven E.; Linares, Mauricio; Richards, Stephen; Blaxter, Mark L.; Mullen, Sean P.; Joron, Mathieu; Kronforst, Marcus R.; McMillan, Wo Owen; Consortium, Heliconius Genome; Mallet, James; Constant, Richard H. ffrench; Ffrench-Constant, Rh; Mc Millan, W. O.; Jiggins, Chris D.

Tools

Butterfly genome reveals promiscuous exchange of mimicry adaptations among species

Journal article published in 2012 by Richard H. ffrench-Constant, Kanchon Kk Dasmahapatra, James R. Walters, Annabel Whibley, John W. Davey, Adriana D. Briscoe, Aleksey V. Zimin, C. Ritika, Camilo Salazar, W. Owen McMillan, Daniel S. T. Hughes, Simon H. Martin, Laura C. Ferguson, James Jj Lewis, Nicola J. Nadeau

and other authors.

This paper is available in a repository.

Full text: Download

Preprint: policy unknown

Upload

Postprint: policy unknown

Upload

Published version: policy unknown

Upload

Abstract

The evolutionary importance of hybridization and introgression has long been debated. Hybrids are usually rare and unfit, but even infrequent hybridization can aid adaptation by transferring beneficial traits between species. Here we use genomic tools to investigate introgression in Heliconius, a rapidly radiating genus of neotropical butterflies widely used in studies of ecology, behaviour, mimicry and speciation. We sequenced the genome of Heliconius melpomene and compared it with other taxa to investigate chromosomal evolution in Lepidoptera and gene flow among multiple Heliconius species and races. Among 12,669 predicted genes, biologically important expansions of families of chemosensory and Hox genes are particularly noteworthy. Chromosomal organization has remained broadly conserved since the Cretaceous period, when butterflies split from the Bombyx (silkmoth) lineage. Using genomic resequencing, we show hybrid exchange of genes between three co-mimics, Heliconius melpomene, Heliconius timareta and Heliconius elevatus, especially at two genomic regions that control mimicry pattern. We infer that closely related Heliconius species exchange protective colour-pattern genes promiscuously, implying that hybridization has an important role in adaptive radiation. ; Heliconius Genome Consortium. S.W. Baxter. et al.

Links

Tools

Butterfly genome reveals promiscuous exchange of mimicry adaptations among species

Abstract