Tracing the origin and evolution of supergene mimicry in butterflies

Wei Zhang, Erica Westerman, Eyal Nitzany, Stephanie Palmer and Marcus R. Kronforst ()
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Wei Zhang: University of Chicago
Erica Westerman: University of Chicago
Eyal Nitzany: University of Chicago
Stephanie Palmer: University of Chicago
Marcus R. Kronforst: University of Chicago

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Supergene mimicry is a striking phenomenon but we know little about the evolution of this trait in any species. Here, by studying genomes of butterflies from a recent radiation in which supergene mimicry has been isolated to the gene doublesex, we show that sexually dimorphic mimicry and female-limited polymorphism are evolutionarily related as a result of ancient balancing selection combined with independent origins of similar morphs in different lineages and secondary loss of polymorphism in other lineages. Evolutionary loss of polymorphism appears to have resulted from an interaction between natural selection and genetic drift. Furthermore, molecular evolution of the supergene is dominated not by adaptive protein evolution or balancing selection, but by extensive hitchhiking of linked variants on the mimetic dsx haplotype that occurred at the origin of mimicry. Our results suggest that chance events have played important and possibly opposing roles throughout the history of this classic example of adaptation.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01370-1

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