To stripe or not to stripe: the origin of a novel foliar pigmentation pattern in monkeyflowers (Mimulus).

ABSTRACT: The origin of phenotypic novelty is one of the most challenging problems in evolutionary biology. Although genetic regulatory network rewiring or co-option has been widely recognised as a major contributor, in most cases how such genetic rewiring/co-option happens is completely unknown. We have studied a novel foliar pigmentation pattern that evolved recently in the monkeyflower species Mimulus verbenaceus. Through genome-wide association tests using wild-collected samples, experimental crosses of laboratory inbred lines, gene expression analyses, and functional assays, we identified an anthocyanin-activating R2R3-MYB gene, STRIPY, as the causal gene triggering the emergence of the discrete, mediolateral anthocyanin stripe in the M. verbenaceus leaf. Chemical mutagenesis revealed the exist

SUBMITTER: LaFountain AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10601762 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature