Dataset Information

Adaptive introgression of a visual preference gene.

ABSTRACT: Visual preferences are important drivers of mate choice and sexual selection, but little is known of how they evolve at the genetic level. In this study, we took advantage of the diversity of bright warning patterns displayed by Heliconius butterflies, which are also used during mate choice. Combining behavioral, population genomic, and expression analyses, we show that two Heliconius species have evolved the same preferences for red patterns by exchanging genetic material through hybridization. Neural expression of regucalcin1 correlates with visual preference across populations, and disruption of regucalcin1 with CRISPR-Cas9 impairs courtship toward conspecific females, providing a direct link between gene and behavior. Our results support a role for hybridization during behavioral evolution and show how visually guided behaviors contributing to adaptation and speciation are encoded within the genome.

SUBMITTER: Rossi M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7616200 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Adaptive introgression of a visual preference gene.

Rossi Matteo M Hausmann Alexander E AE Alcami Pepe P Moest Markus M Roussou Rodaria R Van Belleghem Steven M SM Wright Daniel Shane DS Kuo Chi-Yun CY Lozano-Urrego Daniela D Maulana Arif A Melo-Flórez Lina L Rueda-Muñoz Geraldine G McMahon Saoirse S Linares Mauricio M Osman Christof C McMillan W Owen WO Pardo-Diaz Carolina C Salazar Camilo C Merrill Richard M RM

Science (New York, N.Y.) 20240321 6689

Visual preferences are important drivers of mate choice and sexual selection, but little is known of how they evolve at the genetic level. In this study, we took advantage of the diversity of bright warning patterns displayed by <i>Heliconius</i> butterflies, which are also used during mate choice. Combining behavioral, population genomic, and expression analyses, we show that two <i>Heliconius</i> species have evolved the same preferences for red patterns by exchanging genetic material through ...[more]

PMID: 38513020

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Project description:Recently diverged species typically have incomplete reproductive barriers, allowing introgression of genetic material from one species into the genomic background of the other. The role of natural selection in preventing or promoting introgression remains contentious. Because of genomic co-adaptation, some chromosomal fragments are expected to be selected against in the new background and resist introgression. In contrast, natural selection should favor introgression for alleles at genes evolving under multi-allelic balancing selection, such as the MHC in vertebrates, disease resistance, or self-incompatibility genes in plants. Here, we test the prediction that negative, frequency-dependent selection on alleles at the multi-allelic gene controlling pistil self-incompatibility specificity in two closely related species, Arabidopsis halleri and A. lyrata, caused introgression at this locus at a higher rate than the genomic background. Polymorphism at this gene is largely shared, and we have identified 18 pairs of S-alleles that are only slightly divergent between the two species. For these pairs of S-alleles, divergence at four-fold degenerate sites (K = 0.0193) is about four times lower than the genomic background (K = 0.0743). We demonstrate that this difference cannot be explained by differences in effective population size between the two types of loci. Rather, our data are most consistent with a five-fold increase of introgression rates for S-alleles as compared to the genomic background, making this study the first documented example of adaptive introgression facilitated by balancing selection. We suggest that this process plays an important role in the maintenance of high allelic diversity and divergence at the S-locus in flowering plant families. Because genes under balancing selection are expected to be among the last to stop introgressing, their comparison in closely related species provides a lower-bound estimate of the time since the species stopped forming fertile hybrids, thereby complementing the average portrait of divergence between species provided by genomic data.

Dataset Information

Adaptive introgression of a visual preference gene.

Publications

Adaptive introgression of a visual preference gene.

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