Ancient balancing selection at tan underlies female colour dimorphism in Drosophila erecta

Amir Yassin (), Héloïse Bastide, Henry Chung, Michel Veuille, Jean R. David and John E. Pool
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Amir Yassin: Laboratory of Genetics, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Héloïse Bastide: Laboratory of Genetics, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Henry Chung: Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Laboratory of Molecular Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Michel Veuille: Institut Systématique Evolution Biodiversité ISYEB—UMR 7205—CNRS—MNHN—UPMC—EPHE, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris-Sciences-Lettres
Jean R. David: Laboratoire Evolution, Génomes, Comportement, Ecologie (EGCE), CNRS, IRD, University of Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay
John E. Pool: Laboratory of Genetics, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Dimorphic traits are ubiquitous in nature, but the evolutionary factors leading to dimorphism are largely unclear. We investigate a potential case of sexual mimicry in Drosophila erecta, in which females show contrasting resemblance to males. We map the genetic basis of this sex-limited colour dimorphism to a region containing the gene tan. We find a striking signal of ancient balancing selection at the ‘male-specific enhancer’ of tan, with exceptionally high sequence divergence between light and dark alleles, suggesting that this dimorphism has been adaptively maintained for millions of years. Using transgenic reporter assays, we confirm that these enhancer alleles encode expression differences that are predicted to generate this pigmentation dimorphism. These results are compatible with the theoretical prediction that divergent phenotypes maintained by selection can evolve simple genetic architectures.

Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10400

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