The genetic architecture of colour pattern evolution in heliconius butterflies

Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.

Project objective

Despite the extraordinary diversity of color patterns and their clear adaptive value in butterflies, the central question of the mechanisms underlying color pattern change is still poorly resolved. Traditional genetics suggest the existence of clusters of genes (supergenes) modulated by minor genes, that are not homologous between species and suggest prevalence of the genetic architecture in driving adaptation. Developmental genetics suggests regulatory genes are conserved between very divergent taxa, implying a common and labile genetic basis for pattern evolution. My project proposes( 1 ) to build a dense AFLP linkage map for the species Heliconius numata, using techniques used in closely related species. H. numata is a colour-polymorphic mimetic butterfly, and crosses indicate single-gene inheritance of colour pattern with simple dominance of multiple alleles, contrary to what is found in other Heliconius species. We will then(2) compare the produced map to those of Heliconius melpomene and H. erato, using a suite of codominant anchor" loci, including candidate developmental genes involved in colour pattern formation in other butterflies. This will allow us to study the homologies between the two colour pattern genetic systems, and assess the importance of the genetic architecture in determining adaptive change."

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

• UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON · LONDONCoordinatorUnited Kingdom

Links

• View on CORDIS