The aposematic phenotype: a geno- by phenotype perspective from poison frogs

警戒主义和隐匿主义是两种截然不同的反捕食者策略。警戒性动物通常具有明显的警告色，以表明其捕食者的有害表型（化学防御，刺等），而神秘动物是被圈养的并且通常无害。在新热带区的毒蛙（树蛙科）中，许多物种都是彩色的，种群表现出不同的颜色变体，这些变体在显著性上有所不同。在经过充分研究的草莓毒蛙O。pumilio更明显的颜色变体毒性更大，因此呈现警戒表型，而更隐蔽的颜色变体毒性更小。在我们以前的研究中，我们发现在O. pumilio。在这里，我们通过详细研究着色和毒性之间的基因组联系来扩展这些发现。我们将描述生物碱和色素以及潜在的表达和遗传变异的着色和色素相关基因在三个Oophaga物种。本项目的核心问题是，是否基因型和表型之间的红色和绿色的颜色形态在三个Oophaga物种，从而提供证据，是否警戒性状的进化轨迹是决定性的和可预测的或特异性的和不可预测的进化。进化生物学家很少对一组不同的警戒性状的基因型与表型的相互作用进行评估。预期的基因组见解的进化，警戒将推动类似的基因型表型研究在其他警戒组，并最终推进我们的理解警戒进化。该项目将包括欧洲和拉丁美洲实验室之间的广泛知识转移和能力建设，涉及不同年龄，性别/性别和出身的科学家。应用的方法和合作战略预计将提高所有参与者的科学产出，同时加强他们的人的融合。

Aposematism and crypsis are two contrasting anti-predator strategies. Aposematic animals often possess a conspicuous warning coloration to signal their predators harmful phenotypes (chemical defences, spines, etc.), while cryptic animals are camouflaged and generally non-harmful. In Neotropical poison frogs (Dendrobatidae) many species are colour polypytic, with populations showing different colour morphs which vary in conspicuousness. In the well-studied strawberry poison frog O. pumilio the more conspicuous colour morphs are more toxic, thus presenting an aposematic phenotype while more cryptic colour morphs are less toxic. In our previous studies, we found that the expression of genes involved in pigment production and structural coloration differs between colour morphs in O. pumilio. Here we extend on these findings by investigating the genomic link between coloration and toxicity in detail. We will characterize the alkaloids and pigments as well as underlying expression and genetic variation of coloration- and alkaloid-related genes in three Oophaga species. The central question of this project is whether genotype and phenotype are similarly correlated between the red and green colour morphs in the three Oophaga species thus providing evidences on whether the evolutionary trajectories of aposematic traits resulted from deterministic and predictable or idiosyncratic and unpredictable evolution. This genotype by phenotype interaction analysis of a diverse set of aposematic traits have been rarely assessed by evolutionary biologists. The expected genomic insights on the evolution of aposematism will propel similar genotype by phenotype studies in other aposematic groups and ultimately advance our understanding of aposematism evolution. The project will include extensive transfer of knowledge and capacity building between European and Latin American labs, involving scientists of different ages, sexes/gender and origins. The applied methodologies and collaboration strategies are expected to boost the scientific outputs of all participants while strengthening their human integration.