Developmental Transcriptomics Reveals a Gene Network Driving Mimetic Color Variation in a Bumble Bee.

ABSTRACT: A major goal of evolutionary genetics and evo-devo is to understand how changes in genotype manifest as changes in phenotype. Bumble bees display remarkable color pattern diversity while converging onto numerous regional Müllerian mimicry patterns, thus enabling exploration of the genetic mechanisms underlying convergent phenotypic evolution. In western North America, multiple bumble bee species converge onto local mimicry patterns through parallel shifts of midabdominal segments from red to black. It was previously demonstrated that a Hox gene, Abd-B, is the key regulator of the phenotypic switch in one of these species, Bombus melanopygus, however, the mechanism by which Abd-B regulates color differentiation remains unclear. Using tissue/stage-specific transcriptomic analysis followed by

SUBMITTER: Rahman SR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8220310 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature