Sex, butterflies and molecular biology: when pigmentation met mimicry.
Sex, butterflies and molecular biology: when pigmentation met mimicry.
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性、蝴蝶和分子生物学：当色素沉着遇到拟态。
DOI：
10.1111/pcmr.12260
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发表时间：
2014
影响因子：
4.3
通讯作者：
Ffrench-Constant RH
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Ffrench-Constant RH
色素沉着，特别是黑化，往往是自然选择的经典例子，如伪装和模仿背后的驱动力。然而，虽然昆虫的色素沉着长期以来一直被认为是遗传模型果蝇的专属保护区，但关于蝴蝶黑化和拟态的分子基础的令人惊叹的新论文开始显示进化如何直接作用于以前被视为严格发育问题的问题。例如，Heliconius属中引人注目的黄色，黑色和红色“邮差”蝴蝶的色素沉着和模仿是由转录因子控制的，如optix，显然是从早期发育中重新部署的角色。黑变在两性异形中也很重要，在蝴蝶中常用于产生与拟态相关的限性多态性。虽然许多不同的蝴蝶家族显示出这种性别限制的模仿，凤蝶属的燕尾蝶形成了一个很好的模型，在强自然选择下研究色素沉着的遗传学。Clarke和Sheppard使用燕尾服研究拟态的遗传学，并且是第一个提出“超基因”概念的人，推测是一组紧密相连的基因，以某种方式共同作用，以解释他们在遗传杂交中观察到的看似复杂的不同色素表型。
Pigmentation, specifically melanism, is often the driving force behind classic examples of natural selection such as camouflage and mimicry. However, whilst pigmentation in insects has long been considered the exclusive preserve of the genetic model Drosophila, stunning new papers on the molecular basis of melanism and mimicry in butterflies are beginning to show how evolution can act directly on what has previously been viewed as strictly a developmental problem. For example, pigmentation and mimicry in the striking yellow, black and red ‘Postman’butterflies of the genus Heliconius is controlled by transcription factors, such as optix, apparently redeployed from their roles in early development. Melanism is also important in sexual dimorphism and within butterflies is often used to generate mimicry-related sex-limited polymorphisms. Whilst a number of different butterfly families show such sex-limited mimicry, the swallowtail butterflies of the genus Papilio form an excellent model in which to study the genetics of pigmentation under strong natural selection. Clarke and Sheppard used swallowtails to study the genetics of mimicry and were the first to come up with the concept of a ‘supergene’, inferred to be a block of tightly linked genes somehow acting together to account for the seemingly complex array of different pigmentation phenotypes they observed in their genetic crosses.