The Genetic Architecture of Color Pattern Evolution in Heliconius erato

9806792麦克米兰尽管适应在生物学研究中处于中心地位，但对自然种群适应的遗传基础研究仍然很少。这主要是因为，除了老鼠和果蝇等少数模式遗传生物外，还没有开发出对适应特征进行详细遗传分析所需的许多遗传标记。该项目将绘制与新热带蝴蝶Helconius Erato的颜色模式变化有关的基因图谱。在这个物种中，有20多个地理种族的显著进化，这些种族在翅膀颜色图案上显示出显著的差异。埃拉托蝴蝶生动的翅膀图案是一种适应，警告潜在的捕食者蝴蝶的厌恶。一张详细的遗传图谱将为研究该物种中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强有力的框架。此外，参考基因组图谱将使昆虫发育遗传学研究中出现的重要调控基因相对于已知的导致H.Erato模式变化的基因进行定位。该项目开发的标记和理论将对鳞翅目的其他研究普遍有用，鳞翅目占世界物种的近10%，包括一些最有害的食物和纤维害虫。在模式进化的基础上存在一个定义良好的发育模型，这使得蝴蝶翅膀成为整合遗传、发育和形态变化的优秀模型。这项研究将为今后对H.Erato和H.Melpomene的颜色模式模仿的结构进行比较连锁分析奠定基础。黑斑潜蝇经历了平行的种内颜色模式辐射，以至于这两个远亲物种的小种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。了解基因变化反复导致这两个物种的翅膀模式如此显着地趋同，为生物学家提供了难得的洞察力，使他们能够深入了解模仿的进化以及发育和适应变化之间的联系。

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.