Butterfly genome reveals promiscuous exchange of mimicry adaptations among species
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Published version
Date
2012-07-05
Authors
Dasmahapatra, Kanchon K.
Walters, James R.
Briscoe, Adriana D.
Davey, John W.
Whibley, Annabel
Nadeau, Nicola J.
Zimin, Aleksey V.
Hughes, Daniel S.T.
Ferguson, Laura C.
Martin, Simon H.
Version
Published version
OA Version
Citation
Kanchon K Dasmahapatra, James R Walters, Adriana D Briscoe, John W Davey, Annabel Whibley, Nicola J Nadeau, Aleksey V Zimin, Daniel ST Hughes, Laura C Ferguson, Simon H Martin, Camilo Salazar, James J Lewis, Sebastian Adler, Seung-Joon Ahn, Dean A Baker, Simon W Baxter, Nicola L Chamberlain, Ritika Chauhan, Brian A Counterman, Tamas Dalmay, Lawrence E Gilbert, Karl Gordon, David G Heckel, Heather M Hines, Katharina J Hoff, Peter WH Holland, Emmanuelle Jacquin-Joly, Francis M Jiggins, Robert T Jones, Durrell D Kapan, Paul Kersey, Gerardo Lamas, Daniel Lawson, Daniel Mapleson, Luana S Maroja, Arnaud Martin, Simon Moxon, William J Palmer, Riccardo Papa, Alexie Papanicolaou, Yannick Pauchet, David A Ray, Neil Rosser, Steven L Salzberg, Megan A Supple, Alison Surridge, Ayse Tenger-Trolander, Heiko Vogel, Paul A Wilkinson, Derek Wilson, James A Yorke, Furong Yuan, Alexi L Balmuth, Cathlene Eland, Karim Gharbi, Marian Thomson, Richard A Gibbs, Yi Han, Joy C Jayaseelan, Christie Kovar, Tittu Mathew, Donna M Muzny, Fiona Ongeri, Ling-Ling Pu, Jiaxin Qu, Rebecca L Thornton, Kim C Worley, Yuan-Qing Wu, Mauricio Linares, Mark L Blaxter, Richard H Ffrench-Constant, Mathieu Joron, Marcus R Kronforst, Sean P Mullen, Robert D Reed, Steven E Scherer, Stephen Richards, James Mallet, W Owen McMillan, Chris D Jiggins. 2012. "Butterfly genome reveals promiscuous exchange of mimicry adaptations among species." NATURE, Volume 487, Issue 7405, pp. 94 - 98 (5). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11041
Abstract
The evolutionary importance of hybridization and introgression has long been debated1. 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 speciation2,3,4,5. 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.
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