The Genetic Architecture of Color Pattern Evolution in Heliconius erato

小行星9806792 尽管适应在生物学研究中处于中心地位，但自然种群中适应的遗传基础仍然很少探索。这主要是因为，除了一些模式遗传生物，如小鼠和果蝇，许多遗传标记所需的详细遗传分析的适应性性状尚未开发。 该项目将绘制新热带蝴蝶Heliconius erato中涉及颜色模式变化的基因。在这个物种中，已经有超过20个地理种族的显着进化，这些种族在翅膀颜色模式上表现出显着的差异。H. ERATO是一种适应性的变化，它警告潜在的捕食者蝴蝶的厌恶。详细的遗传图谱。ERATO将为研究该物种颜色模式变化的主要和次要颜色模式基因的数量、表型效应和位置提供一个有效的框架。此外，参考基因组图谱将允许从昆虫发育遗传学研究中出现的重要调控基因相对于已知引起H.埃拉托。在这个项目中开发的标记和理论将普遍适用于鳞翅目的其他研究，其中包括世界上近10%的物种，包括一些最有害的食物和纤维害虫。 存在一个定义明确的发展模式的模式进化，使蝴蝶翅膀整合遗传，发展和形态变化的优秀模型。本研究将为进一步比较连锁分析H。erato和H.美波美Heliconius melpomene经历了一个平行的种内颜色模式辐射，这样两个远亲物种的种族在南美洲和中美洲的大部分地区共享几乎相同的翅膀模式。了解这两个物种的翅膀图案反复产生如此显著的趋同的遗传变化，为生物学家提供了对拟态进化以及发育和适应性变化之间联系的罕见见解。

9806792 McMillan Despite the central position of adaptation in biological research, the genetic basis of adaptation in natural populations remains poorly explored. This is primarily because, except for a few model genetic organisms like mice and fruit flies, the many genetic markers necessary for detailed genetic analysis of adaptive traits have not been developed. This project will map genes involved in color pattern change in the neotropical butterfly Heliconius erato. Within this species, there has been remarkable evolution into over 20 geographic races that show striking differences in wing color patterns. The vivid wing patterns of H. erato are adaptations that warn potential predators of the butterflies' distastefulness. A detailed genetic map of H. erato will provide a potent framework for studying the number, phenotypic effect, and position of both major and minor color pattern genes underlying the color pattern change in this species. Moreover, the reference genome map will allow important regulatory genes emerging from developmental genetic studies of insects to be mapped relative to the genes known to cause pattern change in H. erato. Markers and theory developed in this project will be generally useful for other studies of Lepidoptera, which comprise almost 10% of the world's species and include some of the most noxious pests of food and fiber. The presence of a well defined developmental model underlying pattern evolution makes butterfly wings excellent models for integrating genetics, development, and morphological change. This study will be the initiating step in future comparative linkage analysis of the architecture of color pattern mimicry between H. erato and H. melpomene. Heliconius melpomene has undergone a parallel intraspecific color pattern radiation, such that races of the two distantly related species share nearly identical wing patterns across much of South and Central America. Understanding the genetic changes that repeatedly produced such remarkable converg ence in the wing patterns of these two species offers biologists rare insights into the evolution of mimicry and into the links between development and adaptive change.