Regulatory and disruptive variants in the CLCN2 gene are associated with modified skin color pattern phenotypes in the corn snake.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Snakes exhibit a broad variety of adaptive colors and color patterns, generated by the spatial arrangement of chromatophores, but little is known of the mechanisms responsible for these spectacular traits. Here, we investigate a mono-locus trait with two recessive alleles, motley and stripe, that both cause pattern aberrations in the corn snake.

Results

We use mapping-by-sequencing to identify the genomic interval where the causal mutations reside. With our differential gene expression analyses, we find that CLCN2 (Chloride Voltage-Gated Channel 2), a gene within the genomic interval, is significantly downregulated in Motley embryonic skin. Furthermore, we identify the stripe allele as the insertion of an LTR-retrotransposon in CLCN2, resulting in a disruptive mut

SUBMITTER: Montandon SA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11948899 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature