Polymorphism at a mimicry supergene maintained by opposing frequency-dependent selection pressures.

ABSTRACT: Explaining the maintenance of adaptive diversity within populations is a long-standing goal in evolutionary biology, with important implications for conservation, medicine, and agriculture. Adaptation often leads to the fixation of beneficial alleles, and therefore it erodes local diversity so that understanding the coexistence of multiple adaptive phenotypes requires deciphering the ecological mechanisms that determine their respective benefits. Here, we show how antagonistic frequency-dependent selection (FDS), generated by natural and sexual selection acting on the same trait, maintains mimicry polymorphism in the toxic butterfly Heliconius numata Positive FDS imposed by predators on mimetic signals favors the fixation of the most abundant and best-protected wing-pattern morph, t

SUBMITTER: Chouteau M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5547605 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature