IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v514y2014i7522d10.1038_nature13812.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The genetics of monarch butterfly migration and warning colouration

Author

Listed:
  • Shuai Zhan

    (Key Laboratory of Insect Developmental and Evolutionary Biology, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    University of Chicago
    University of Massachusetts Medical School)

  • Wei Zhang

    (University of Chicago)

  • Kristjan Niitepõld

    (Stanford University
    University of Helsinki, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland)

  • Jeremy Hsu

    (Stanford University)

  • Juan Fernández Haeger

    (Ecología y Fisiología Vegetal, Universidad de Córdoba, 14071 Córdoba, Spain)

  • Myron P. Zalucki

    (School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland)

  • Sonia Altizer

    (Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia)

  • Jacobus C. de Roode

    (Emory University)

  • Steven M. Reppert

    (University of Massachusetts Medical School)

  • Marcus R. Kronforst

    (University of Chicago)

Abstract

The monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus, is famous for its spectacular annual migration across North America, recent worldwide dispersal, and orange warning colouration. Despite decades of study and broad public interest, we know little about the genetic basis of these hallmark traits. Here we uncover the history of the monarch’s evolutionary origin and global dispersal, characterize the genes and pathways associated with migratory behaviour, and identify the discrete genetic basis of warning colouration by sequencing 101 Danaus genomes from around the globe. The results rewrite our understanding of this classic system, showing that D. plexippus was ancestrally migratory and dispersed out of North America to occupy its broad distribution. We find the strongest signatures of selection associated with migration centre on flight muscle function, resulting in greater flight efficiency among migratory monarchs, and that variation in monarch warning colouration is controlled by a single myosin gene not previously implicated in insect pigmentation.

Suggested Citation

  • Shuai Zhan & Wei Zhang & Kristjan Niitepõld & Jeremy Hsu & Juan Fernández Haeger & Myron P. Zalucki & Sonia Altizer & Jacobus C. de Roode & Steven M. Reppert & Marcus R. Kronforst, 2014. "The genetics of monarch butterfly migration and warning colouration," Nature, Nature, vol. 514(7522), pages 317-321, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:514:y:2014:i:7522:d:10.1038_nature13812
    DOI: 10.1038/nature13812
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature13812
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature13812?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. M. Jerome Beetz & Christian Kraus & Basil el Jundi, 2023. "Neural representation of goal direction in the monarch butterfly brain," 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:nature:v:514:y:2014:i:7522:d:10.1038_nature13812. 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.