A transposable element insertion is associated with an alternative life history strategy

Alyssa Woronik (), Kalle Tunström, Michael W. Perry, Ramprasad Neethiraj, Constanti Stefanescu, Maria de la Paz Celorio-Mancera, Oskar Brattström, Jason Hill, Philipp Lehmann, Reijo Käkelä and Christopher W. Wheat ()
Additional contact information
Alyssa Woronik: Stockholm University
Kalle Tunström: Stockholm University
Michael W. Perry: New York University
Ramprasad Neethiraj: Stockholm University
Constanti Stefanescu: Museum of Natural Sciences of Granollers
Maria de la Paz Celorio-Mancera: Stockholm University
Oskar Brattström: University of Cambridge
Jason Hill: Stockholm University
Philipp Lehmann: Stockholm University
Reijo Käkelä: University of Helsinki
Christopher W. Wheat: Stockholm University

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Tradeoffs affect resource allocation during development and result in fitness consequences that drive the evolution of life history strategies. Yet despite their importance, we know little about the mechanisms underlying life history tradeoffs. Many species of Colias butterflies exhibit an alternative life history strategy (ALHS) where females divert resources from wing pigment synthesis to reproductive and somatic development. Due to this reallocation, a wing color polymorphism is associated with the ALHS: either yellow/orange or white. Here we map the locus associated with this ALHS in Colias crocea to a transposable element insertion located downstream of the Colias homolog of BarH-1, a homeobox transcription factor. Using CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing, antibody staining, and electron microscopy we find white-specific expression of BarH-1 suppresses the formation of pigment granules in wing scales and gives rise to white wing color. Lipid and transcriptome analyses reveal physiological differences associated with the ALHS. Together, these findings characterize a mechanism for a female-limited ALHS.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-13596-2 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-13596-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-13596-2

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().