Genomic evidence reveals three W-autosome fusions in Heliconius butterflies.

ABSTRACT: Sex chromosomes are evolutionarily labile in many animals and sometimes fuse with autosomes, creating so-called neo-sex chromosomes. Fusions between sex chromosomes and autosomes have been proposed to reduce sexual conflict and to promote adaptation and reproductive isolation among species. Recently, advances in genomics have fuelled the discovery of such fusions across the tree of life. Here, we discovered multiple fusions leading to neo-sex chromosomes in the sapho subclade of the classical adaptive radiation of Heliconius butterflies. Heliconius butterflies generally have 21 chromosomes with very high synteny. However, the five Heliconius species in the sapho subclade show large variation in chromosome number ranging from 21 to 60. We find that the W chromosome is fused with chromosome

SUBMITTER: Rueda-M N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11257349 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature