Project description:Our genomic, bulk and single-cell transcriptomic, functional, and developmental characterization of the Terrazzo corn snake color morph and the extensive comparison with wild-type snakes puts forward the dual role of PMEL in snake skin coloration, both in the differentiation of chromatophores during embryogenesis and the melanogenesis in melanophores.
Project description:Our genomic, bulk and single-cell transcriptomic, functional, and developmental characterization of the Terrazzo corn snake color morph and the extensive comparison with wild-type snakes puts forward the dual role of PMEL in snake skin coloration, both in the differentiation of chromatophores during embryogenesis and the melanogenesis in melanophores.
Project description:Here we used artificial selection to assimilate a seasonal wing color phenotype from a naturally plastic population of butterflies. Using SNP association and RNAseq we mapped three genes responsible for wing color fixation, including the color pattern supergene cortex. Combined with endocrine and chromatin accessibility assays, we found that the rapid transition of wing coloration from an environmentally determined trait to a fixed, genetic trait occurred through selection on cis-regulatory alleles of genes with wing-specific functions, not by changes in environmental detection or hormone signaling.
