Sex-linked gene traffic underlies the acquisition of sexually dimorphic UV color vision in Heliconius butterflies
The acquisition of novel sexually dimorphic traits poses an evolutionary puzzle: How do new traits arise and become sex-limited? Recently acquired color vision, sexually dimorphic in animals like primates and butterflies, presents a compelling model for understanding how traits become sex-biased. Fo...
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Published in | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 120; no. 33; p. e2301411120 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
United States
National Academy of Sciences
15.08.2023
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | The acquisition of novel sexually dimorphic traits poses an evolutionary puzzle: How do new traits arise and become sex-limited? Recently acquired color vision, sexually dimorphic in animals like primates and butterflies, presents a compelling model for understanding how traits become sex-biased. For example, some
butterflies uniquely possess UV (ultraviolet) color vision, which correlates with the expression of two differentially tuned UV-sensitive rhodopsins, UVRh1 and UVRh2. To discover how such traits become sexually dimorphic, we studied
, which exhibits female-specific UVRh1 expression. We demonstrate that females, but not males, discriminate different UV wavelengths. Through whole-genome shotgun sequencing and assembly of the
genome, we discovered that
is present on the W chromosome, making it obligately female-specific. By knocking out
, we show that UVRh1 protein expression is absent in mutant female eye tissue, as in wild-type male eyes. A PCR survey of
sex-linkage across the genus shows that species with female-specific UVRh1 expression lack
gDNA in males. Thus, acquisition of sex linkage is sufficient to achieve female-specific expression of
, though this does not preclude other mechanisms, like
-regulatory evolution from also contributing. Moreover, both this event, and mutations leading to differential UV opsin sensitivity, occurred early in the history of
. These results suggest a path for acquiring sexual dimorphism distinct from existing mechanistic models. We propose a model where gene traffic to heterosomes (the W or the Y) genetically partitions a trait by sex before a phenotype shifts (spectral tuning of UV sensitivity). |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 Edited by Joan Strassmann, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO; received January 26, 2023; accepted June 16, 2023 |
ISSN: | 0027-8424 1091-6490 |
DOI: | 10.1073/pnas.2301411120 |