IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v8y2017i1d10.1038_s41467-017-01370-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Tracing the origin and evolution of supergene mimicry in butterflies

Author

Listed:
  • Wei Zhang

    (University of Chicago)

  • Erica Westerman

    (University of Chicago
    University of Arkansas)

  • Eyal Nitzany

    (University of Chicago)

  • Stephanie Palmer

    (University of Chicago)

  • Marcus R. Kronforst

    (University of Chicago)

Abstract

Supergene mimicry is a striking phenomenon but we know little about the evolution of this trait in any species. Here, by studying genomes of butterflies from a recent radiation in which supergene mimicry has been isolated to the gene doublesex, we show that sexually dimorphic mimicry and female-limited polymorphism are evolutionarily related as a result of ancient balancing selection combined with independent origins of similar morphs in different lineages and secondary loss of polymorphism in other lineages. Evolutionary loss of polymorphism appears to have resulted from an interaction between natural selection and genetic drift. Furthermore, molecular evolution of the supergene is dominated not by adaptive protein evolution or balancing selection, but by extensive hitchhiking of linked variants on the mimetic dsx haplotype that occurred at the origin of mimicry. Our results suggest that chance events have played important and possibly opposing roles throughout the history of this classic example of adaptation.

Suggested Citation

  • Wei Zhang & Erica Westerman & Eyal Nitzany & Stephanie Palmer & Marcus R. Kronforst, 2017. "Tracing the origin and evolution of supergene mimicry in butterflies," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 8(1), pages 1-11, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-017-01370-1
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01370-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-01370-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-017-01370-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kerdoncuff, Elise & Lambert, Amaury & Achaz, Guillaume, 2020. "Testing for population decline using maximal linkage disequilibrium blocks," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 171-181.
    2. Guangping Huang & Lingyun Song & Xin Du & Xin Huang & Fuwen Wei, 2023. "Evolutionary genomics of camouflage innovation in the orchid mantis," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-017-01370-1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.