Conservation and flexibility in the gene regulatory landscape of heliconiine butterfly wings.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Many traits evolve by cis-regulatory modification, by which changes to noncoding sequences affect the binding affinity for available transcription factors and thus modify the expression profile of genes. Multiple examples of cis-regulatory evolution have been described at pattern switch genes responsible for butterfly wing pattern polymorphism, including in the diverse neotropical genus Heliconius, but the identities of the factors that can regulate these switch genes have not been identified.

Results

We investigated the spatial transcriptomic landscape across the wings of three closely related butterfly species, two of which have a convergently evolved co-mimetic pattern and the other having a divergent pattern. We identified candidate factor

SUBMITTER: Hanly JJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6631869 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature