西亚试剂：doublesex is a mimicry supergene

K. Kunte, W. Zhang, A. Tenger-Trolander, D. H. Palmer, A. Martin, R. D. Reed, S. P. Mullen &M. R. Kronforst

One of the most striking examples of sexual dimorphism is sex-limited mimicry in butterflies, a phenomenon in which one sex—usually the female—mimics a toxic model species, whereas the other sex displays a different wing pattern1. Sex-limited mimicry is phylogenetically widespread in the swallowtail butterfly genus Papilio, in which it is often associated with female mimetic polymorphism. In multiple polymorphic species, the entire wing pattern phenotype is controlled by a single Mendelian ‘supergene’. Although theoretical work has explored the evolutionary dynamics of supergene mimicry, there are almost no empirical data that address the critical issue of what a mimicry supergene actually is at a functional level. Using an integrative approach combining genetic and association mapping, transcr-ptome and genome sequencing, and gene expressi0n analyses, we show that a single gene, doublesex, controls supergene mimicry inPapilio polytes. This is in contrast to the long-held view that supergenes are likely to be controlled by a tightly 1inked cluster of loci. Analysis of gene expressi0n and DNA sequence variation indicates that isoform expressi0n differences contribute to the functional differences between dsxmimicry alleles, and protein sequence evolution may also have a role. Our results combine elements from different hypotheses for the identity of supergenes, showing that a single gene can switch the entire wing pattern among mimicry phenotypes but may require multiple, tightly 1inked mutations to do so.

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