Insights into the development and evolution of exaggerated traits using de novo transcriptomes of two species of horned scarab beetles.

ABSTRACT: Scarab beetles exhibit an astonishing variety of rigid exo-skeletal outgrowths, known as "horns". These traits are often sexually dimorphic and vary dramatically across species in size, shape, location, and allometry with body size. In many species, the horn exhibits disproportionate growth resulting in an exaggerated allometric relationship with body size, as compared to other traits, such as wings, that grow proportionately with body size. Depending on the species, the smallest males either do not produce a horn at all, or they produce a disproportionately small horn for their body size. While the diversity of horn shapes and their behavioural ecology have been reasonably well studied, we know far less about the proximate mechanisms that regulate horn growth. Thus, using 454 pyrosequenci

SUBMITTER: Warren IA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3930525 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature