Evolutionary mechanisms of runaway chromosome number change in Agrodiaetus butterflies.

ABSTRACT: Despite predictions of the classic, hybrid-sterility model of chromosomal speciation, some organisms demonstrate high rate of karyotype evolution. This rate is especially impressive in Agrodiaetus butterflies that rapidly evolved the greatest chromosome number diversity known in animal kingdom within a single subgenus. Here we analyzed karyotype evolution in Agrodiaetus using phylogenetic comparative methods. We found that chromosome numbers possess a strong phylogenetic signal. This disproves the chromosome megaevolution model that proposes multiple chromosome rearrangements to accumulate independently in each of closely related species. We found that Brownian motion gives a more adequate description of observed trait changes than Ornstein-Uhlenbeck model. This indicates that chromosome n

SUBMITTER: Vershinina AO 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5557896 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature