Monarch butterflies use an environmentally sensitive, internal timer to control overwintering dynamics.

ABSTRACT: The monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) complements its iconic migration with diapause, a hormonally controlled developmental programme that contributes to winter survival at overwintering sites. Although timing is a critical adaptive feature of diapause, how environmental cues are integrated with genetically-determined physiological mechanisms to time diapause development, particularly termination, is not well understood. In a design that subjected western North American monarchs to different environmental chamber conditions over time, we modularized constituent components of an environmentally-controlled, internal diapause termination timer. Using comparative transcriptomics, we identified molecular controllers of these specific diapause termination components. Calcium signalling mediat

SUBMITTER: Green DA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6834359 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature