Sex‐linked inheritance of diapause induction in the butterfly Pieris napi

Abstract

Many temperate insects survive harsh environmental conditions, such as winter, by entering a state of developmental arrest. This diapause state is predominantly induced by photoperiod. The photoperiod varies with latitude and has led to local adaptation in the photoperiodic induction of diapause in many insects. To understand the rapid evolution of the photoperiodic threshold, it is important to investigate and understand the underlying genetic mechanisms. In the present study, the genetic basis of photoperiodic diapause induction is investigated in the green-veined white butterfly Pieris napi (Lepidoptera, Pieridae) by assaying diapause induction in a range of conditions for a Swedish and Spanish population. Furthermore, the inheritance of diapause induction is assessed in reciprocal F1 hybrids and backcrosses between the two populations. The southern population shows a clear photoperiodic threshold determining diapause or direct development, whereas the northern populations show a high incidence of diapause, regardless of photoperiod. The hybrid crosses reveal that the inheritance of diapause induction is strongly sex-linked, and that diapause incidence in the genetic crosses is highly dependent on photoperiod. This emphasizes the importance of assaying a range of conditions in diapause inheritance studies. The results indicate a strongly heritable diapause induction with a major component on the Z-chromosome, as well as a minor effect of the autosomal background.

Genetic variation underlying local adaptation of diapause induction along a cline in a butterfly

“…These could arise due to methodical artefacts (Schlötterer, Tobler, Kofler, & Nolte, ), as well as neutral or selective evolutionary events. Several of these regions of divergence showed significant associations with diapause induction, and represented both the Z chromosome and the autosomes, consistent with the finding of sex‐linked and autosomal components affecting diapause induction in several previous studies (Chen et al., ; Fu et al., ; Hagen & Scriber, ; Ikten et al., ; Pruisscher et al., ; Rockey et al., ), including this species (Nylin et al., ).…”

“…For diapause induction, empirical insights acquired from population crosses and QTL studies are consistent with Mendelian inheritance patterns (Doležel, Vaněčková, Šauman, & Hodkova, ; Han & Denlinger, ; Suwa & Gotoh, ) or indicate an architecture with few loci of large effect sizes (Chen, Xiao, He, Xu, & Xue, ; Danilevskii, ; Demont & Blanckenhorn, ; Fu, Chen, Xiao, He, & Xue, ; Hagen & Scriber, ; Ikten, Skoda, Hunt, Molina‐Ochoa, & Foster, ; Kim, Krafsur, Bailey, & Zhao, ; Kurahashi & Ohtaki, ; Lehmann, Margus, & Lindström, ; McCoy, Lloyd, & Bartlett, ; McWatters & Saunders, ; Pruisscher et al., ; Rockey, Hainze, & Scriber, ; Söderlind & Nylin, ; Xia, Chen, Tu, Yang, & Xue, ), with several reporting large sex‐linked effects (Chen et al., ; Fu et al., ; Hagen & Scriber, ; Ikten et al., ; Nylin, Wickman, & Wiklund, ; Pruisscher et al., ; Rockey et al., ). Studies on quantitative trait loci for CPP show that effect sizes can be highly variable depending on the genetic background of the crosses involved (Bradshaw, Emerson, Catchen, Cresko, & Holzapfel, ).…”

The genetic architecture underlying diapause termination in a planktonic crustacean

“…Adaptive introgression would leave overall genomic structure of the local population intact, thereby preserving habitat related adaptive variation (Nolte, Gompert, & Buerkle, ). Our findings on the genomic architecture of diapause termination in Daphnia might also hint a possible explanation for an emerging pattern in diapause induction studies in insects, where diapause induction was found to be inherited as a single locus trait at one photoperiod, but as a multilocus trait at other photoperiods (Fu, Chen, Xiao, He, & Xue, ; Pruisscher et al, ). Our findings indicate that different alleles at one QTL can modulate and largely negate the effect of another QTL on DTF (Figure ).…”

Inheritance of diapause regulation in the multicoloured Asian ladybird Harmonia axyridis (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae)

“…Earlier studies indicate that the male plays a more important role in the determination of diapause in its progeny, for example, in several species of Lepido ptera (Ikten et al, 2011;Chen et al, 2012;Xia et al, 2012;Huang et al, 2013;Fu et al, 2015;Xiao et al, 2015;Pruisscher et al, 2017). In some other insects in other orders, however, females have the same (Paolucci et al, 2016) or an even stronger (Kuang et al, 2011;Chen et al, 2014;French et al, 2014) infl uence than males on diapause in their progeny.…”