The generation and diversification of butterfly eyespot color patterns

Brunetti, Craig R.; Selegue, Jayne E.; Monteiro, Antónia; French, Vernon; Brakefield, Paul M.; Carroll, Sean B.

doi:10.1016/s0960-9822(01)00502-4

Cited by 280 publications

(307 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Such an approach has been applied most extensively to the diverse wing patterns of butterflies. Comparing spatial patterns of gene expression among species has shown that differences in engrailed, spalt and Distal-less expression are associated with the diversification of color rings in butterfly eyespots [30]. These expression differences could be caused by cis-regulatory changes in the genes examined or by changes in their transcriptional activators.…”

Section: Beyond Drosophilamentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Wittkopp

Beldade

2009

Seminars in Cell & Developmental Biology

281

291

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a b s t r a c tInsect pigmentation is a premier model system in evolutionary and developmental biology. It has been at the heart of classical studies as well as recent breakthroughs. In insects, pigments are produced by epidermal cells through a developmental process that includes pigment patterning and synthesis. Many aspects of this process also impact other phenotypes, including behavior and immunity. This review discusses recent work on the development and evolution of insect pigmentation, with a focus on pleiotropy and its effects on color pattern diversification.

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Section: Beyond Drosophilamentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Wittkopp

Beldade

2009

Seminars in Cell & Developmental Biology

281

291

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“…The diversity of mimicry patterns in Heliconius butterflies is due to the variation in only a handful of genes (Nadeau 2016;Kapan et al 2006), and the specification of color and pattern is now known to be due to a redeployment of many of the genes involved in early embryonic development (Carroll et al 1994;Martin and Reed 2014;Reed and Serfas 2004;Brunetti et al 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Common Developmental Origin of Eyespots and Parafocal Elements and a New Model Mechanism for Color Pattern Formation

Nijhout

2017

Diversity and Evolution of Butterfly Wing Patterns

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The border ocelli and adjacent parafocal elements are among the most diverse and finely detailed features of butterfly wing patterns. The border ocelli can be circular, elliptical, and heart-shaped or can develop as dots, arcs, or short lines. Parafocal elements are typically shaped like smooth arcs but are also often "V," "W," and "M" shaped. The fusion of a border ocellus with its adjacent parafocal element is a common response to temperature shock and treatment with chemicals such as heparin and tungstate ions. Here I develop a new mathematical model for the formation of border ocelli and parafocal elements. The models are a reactiondiffusion model based on the well-established gradient-threshold mechanisms in embryonic development. The model uses a simple biochemical reaction sequence that is initiated at the wing veins and from there spreads across the field in the manner of a grass-fire. Unlike Turing-style models, this model is insensitive to the size of the field. Like real developmental systems, the model does not have a steady state, but the pattern is "read out" at a point in development, in response to an independent developmental signal such as a pulse of ecdysone secretion, which is known to regulate color pattern in butterflies. The grass-fire model reproduces the sequence of Distal-less expression that determines the position of eyespot foci and also shows how a border ocellus and its neighboring parafocal element can arise from such a single focus. The grass-fire model shows that the apparent fusion of ocellus and parafocal element is probably due to a premature termination of the normal process that separates the two and supports the hypothesis that the parafocal element is the distal band of the border symmetry system.

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“…In many butterfly species, differences in engrailed, spalt, and Distal-less expression are associated with the diversification of color rings. The same transcription factors are expressed in eyespot fields, but in different relative spatial domains, suggesting that they correlate with divergent eyespot color schemes (13). Among different Drosophila species, the divergent expression of the yellow gene correlates with the distribution of black melanin, but other genes are also involved in epistatic interactions to generate the evolutionary variations observed in Yellow expression (14)(15)(16)(17).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Repression of tyrosine hydroxylase is responsible for the sex-linked chocolate mutation of the silkworm, Bombyx mori

Lei

Yamamoto

Cheng

et al. 2010

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Pigmentation patterning has long interested biologists, integrating topics in ecology, development, genetics, and physiology. Wild-type neonatal larvae of the silkworm, Bombyx mori , are completely black. By contrast, the epidermis and head of larvae of the homozygous recessive sex-linked chocolate ( sch ) mutant are reddish brown. When incubated at 30 °C, mutants with the sch allele fail to hatch; moreover, homozygous mutants carrying the allele sch lethal ( sch l ) do not hatch even at room temperature (25 °C). By positional cloning, we narrowed a region containing sch to 239,622 bp on chromosome 1 using 4,501 backcross (BC1) individuals. Based on expression analyses, the best sch candidate gene was shown to be tyrosine hydroxylase ( BmTh ). BmTh coding sequences were identical among sch , sch l , and wild-type. However, in sch the ∼70-kb sequence was replaced with ∼4.6 kb of a Tc1-mariner type transposon located ∼6 kb upstream of BmTh , and in sch l , a large fragment of an L1Bm retrotransposon was inserted just in front of the transcription start site of BmTh . In both cases, we observed a drastic reduction of BmTh expression. Use of RNAi with BmTh prevented pigmentation and hatching, and feeding of a tyrosine hydroxylase inhibitor also suppressed larval pigmentation in the wild-type strain, pnd + and in a pS (black-striped) heterozygote. Feeding L-dopa to sch neonate larvae rescued the mutant phenotype from chocolate to black. Our results indicate the BmTh gene is responsible for the sch mutation, which plays an important role in melanin synthesis producing neonatal larval color.

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The generation and diversification of butterfly eyespot color patterns

Cited by 280 publications

References 24 publications

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

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

The Common Developmental Origin of Eyespots and Parafocal Elements and a New Model Mechanism for Color Pattern Formation

Repression of tyrosine hydroxylase is responsible for the sex-linked chocolate mutation of the silkworm, Bombyx mori

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