Gene expression underlying adaptive variation in Heliconius wing patterns: non-modular regulation of overlapping cinnabar and vermilion prepatterns.

ABSTRACT: Geographical variation in the mimetic wing patterns of the butterfly Heliconius erato is a textbook example of adaptive polymorphism; however, little is known about how this variation is controlled developmentally. Using microarrays and qPCR, we identified and compared expression of candidate genes potentially involved with a red/yellow forewing band polymorphism in H. erato. We found that transcripts encoding the pigment synthesis enzymes cinnabar and vermilion showed pattern- and polymorphism-related expression patterns, respectively. cinnabar expression was associated with the forewing band regardless of pigment colour, providing the first gene expression pattern known to be correlated with a major Heliconius colour pattern. In contrast, vermilion expression changed spatially over time

SUBMITTER: Reed RD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2562400 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature