When animal coloration is a poor match

Caro, Tim

doi:10.1007/s10682-020-10084-8

Cited by 9 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 63 publications

(58 reference statements)

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“…However, it remains to demonstrate that male sticklebacks have fitness advantages of red pelvic spines. Otherwise, lack of any adaptive value of the red pelvic spines what so ever would concur with nonadaptionist arguments by Caro ( 2021 ) and Gould and Levontin ( 1979 ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 67%

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Carotenoids‐based reddish pelvic spines in nonreproducing female and male sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) – Signalling social dominance?

Kroken

Sæthre

Nicolaisen

et al. 2021

Ecology and Evolution

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 67%

“…On such potential advantageous effect would be that males with elaborately colored red pelvic spines have an advantage during reproduction. This might well be the case since red color at the males' throat is advantageous during aggressive male-male interactions during the reproductive Caro (2021) and Gould and Levontin (1979).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Carotenoids‐based reddish pelvic spines in nonreproducing female and male sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) – Signalling social dominance?

Kroken

Sæthre

Nicolaisen

et al. 2021

Ecology and Evolution

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“…Thus, it would be interesting to investigate whether rates of albinism in A. fumigatus are elevated in environments where UV radiation is relatively low. Relaxed selection for loss of protective pigmentation in low UV environments has occurred in a variety of organisms including humans ( Jablonski, 2004 ), coconut crabs ( Caro, 2021 ), and many cave animals ( Protas et al., 2006 ; Protas et al., 2011 ; Bilandzija et al., 2012 ). Interestingly, DHN-melanin deficient mutants of two clinical isolates of A. fumigatus were more sensitive to UV-C radiation ( Blachowicz et al., 2020 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Genomics Reveals a Single Nucleotide Deletion in pksP That Results in White-Spore Phenotype in Natural Variants of Aspergillus fumigatus

Gibbons

D’Avino

Zhao

et al. 2022

Front. Fungal Biol.

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Aspergillus fumigatus is a potentially deadly opportunistic human pathogen. A. fumigatus has evolved a variety of mechanisms to evade detection by the immune system. For example, the conidium surface is covered in a layer of 1,8-dihydroxynaphthalene (DHN) melanin which masks the antigen macrophages use for recognition. DHN melanin also protects conidia from ultraviolet radiation and gives A. fumigatus conidia their characteristic green-grayish color. Here, we conducted genomic analysis of two closely related white-spore natural variants of A. fumigatus in comparison to two closely related green-spore isolates to identify a genetic basis of the white-spore phenotype. Illumina whole-genome resequencing data of the four isolates was used to identify variants that were shared in the white-spore isolates and different from both the green-spore isolates and the Af293 reference genome (which is also a green-spore isolate). We identified 4,279 single nucleotide variants and 1,785 insertion/deletions fitting this pattern. Among these, we identified 64 variants predicted to be high impact, loss-of-function mutations. One of these variants is a single nucleotide deletion that results in a frameshift in pksP (Afu2g17600), the core biosynthetic gene in the DHN melanin encoding gene cluster. The frameshift mutation in the white-spore isolates leads to a truncated protein in which a phosphopantetheine attachment site (PP-binding domain) is interrupted and an additional PP-binding domain and a thioesterase domain are omitted. Growth rate analysis of white-spore and green-spore isolates at 37°C and 48°C revealed that white-spore isolates are thermosensitive. Growth rate of A. fumigatus Af293 and a pksP null mutant in the Af293 background suggests pksP is not directly involved in the thermosensitivity phenotype. Further, our study identified a mutation in a gene (Afu4g04740) associated with thermal sensitivity in yeasts which could also be responsible for the thermosensitivity of the white-spore mutants. Overall, we used comparative genomics to identify the mutation and protein alterations responsible for the white-spore phenotype of environmental isolates of A. fumigatus.

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“…Conspicuous colouration being more common in semi-terrestrial burrowers is paradoxical because semi-terrestrial crayfish spend the majority of their lives hidden underground and are rarely active at the surface [58]. Because genetic mechanisms such as drift and mutation might drive the evolution of neutral colour traits [38], the contrast between crayfish burrowing strategies is an ideal system in which to investigate how these factors may relate to the evolution of conspicuous or cryptic colours. If conspicuous colours have evolved as a neutral trait in crayfish, we predict that semi-terrestrial burrowing crayfishes will be more likely to exhibit conspicuous colouration compared with aquatic burrowing species.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Correlated evolution of conspicuous colouration and burrowing in crayfish

Graham,

Padilla Perez

2024

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Conspicuous colours have fascinated biologists for centuries, leading to research on the evolution and functional significance of colour traits. In many cases, research suggests that conspicuous colours are adaptive and serve a function in sexual or aposematic signalling. In other cases, a lack of evidence for the adaptive value of conspicuous colours garners interest from biologists, such as when organisms that live underground and are rarely exposed to the surface are nevertheless colourful. Here, we use phylogenetic comparative methods to investigate colour evolution throughout freshwater crayfishes that vary in burrowing ability. Within the taxa we analysed, conspicuous colours have evolved independently over 50 times, and these colours are more common in semi-terrestrial crayfishes that construct extensive burrows. The intuitive but not evolutionarily justified assumption when presented with these results is to assume that these colours are adaptive. But contrary to this intuition, we discuss the hypothesis that colouration in crayfish is neutral. Supporting these ideas, the small population sizes and reduced gene flow within semi-terrestrial burrowing crayfishes may lead to the fixation of colour-phenotype mutations. Overall, our work brings into question the traditional view of animal colouration as a perfectly adapted phenotype.

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When animal coloration is a poor match

Cited by 9 publications

References 63 publications

Carotenoids‐based reddish pelvic spines in nonreproducing female and male sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) – Signalling social dominance?

Carotenoids‐based reddish pelvic spines in nonreproducing female and male sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) – Signalling social dominance?

Comparative Genomics Reveals a Single Nucleotide Deletion in pksP That Results in White-Spore Phenotype in Natural Variants of Aspergillus fumigatus

Correlated evolution of conspicuous colouration and burrowing in crayfish

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