Contribution of Distal-less to quantitative variation in butterfly eyespots

Abstract

The colour patterns decorating butterfly wings provide ideal material to study the reciprocal interactions between evolution and development. They are visually compelling products of selection, often with a clear adaptive value, and are amenable to a detailed developmental characterization. Research on wing-pattern evolution and development has focused on the eyespots of the tropical butterfly Bicyclus anynana. There is quantitative variation for several features of eyespot morphology but the actual genes contributing to such variation are unknown. On the other hand, studies of gene expression patterns in wing primordia have implicated different developmental pathways in eyespot formation. To link these two sets of information we need to identify which genes within the implicated pathways contribute to the quantitative variation accessible to natural selection. Here we begin to bridge this gap by demonstrating linkage between DNA polymorphisms in the candidate gene Distal-less (Dll) and eyespot size in B. anynana.

Linkage map of the peppered moth, Biston betularia (Lepidoptera, Geometridae): a model of industrial melanism

“…This confirms earlier findings, based on cosegregation, of a lack of association between genetic variation in these genes and the carbonaria morph ( Van't Hof and Saccheri, 2010). In addition to the melanization candidates, vermilion, cinnabar, white, cubitus interruptus, decapentaplegic, patched, Ultrabithorax, wingless, Distalless, naked cuticle, Notch and scalloped were specifically mapped because of their role in lepidopteran pigment patterning (Carroll et al, 1994;Keys et al, 1999;Weatherbee et al, 1999;Beldade et al, 2002;McMillan et al, 2002;Reed and Serfas, 2004;Reed and Nagy, 2005), but none of these candidates maps to chromosome 17 either.…”

Development and evolution of insect pigmentation: Genetic mechanisms and the potential consequences of pleiotropy

“…These expression differences could be caused by cis-regulatory changes in the genes examined or by changes in their transcriptional activators. Although specific genetic changes have not yet been identified, studies mapping the genetic basis of variable wing pigmentation are consistent with changes at pleiotropic regulatory genes: Distal-less is associated with quantitative variation in eyespot size in Bicyclus anynana [31], wingless is associated with wing color in hybrids of Heliconius species [32], and engrailed/invected is associated with wing pattern polymorphism in Papilio dardanus [33]. Increased mapping resolution and/or functional analyses are ultimately needed to separate the effects of these candidate genes from linked loci.…”

yellow and ebony Are the Responsible Genes for the Larval Color Mutants of the Silkworm Bombyx mori

“…Some of the most convincing data comes from comparative studies between different species (Carroll et al 1994;Brunetti et al 2001;Reed and Serfas 2004;Monteiro et al 2006), phenotypically differentiated laboratory strains, or spontaneous mutants within species (Brakefield et al 1996;Brunetti et al 2001, Beldade et al 2002. A candidate gene approach revealed that the Distal-less gene segregates with the eyespot size phenotype, explaining up to 20% of the phenotypic difference between the selected lines in Bicyclus anynana (Beldade et al 2002). To determine the responsible genes for color pattern polymorphisms or mutants, an AFLP-based linkage map has been developed in several butterfly species (reviewed in Beldade et al 2008).…”