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Transcriptome analysis reveals novel patterning and pigmentation genes underlying Heliconius butterfly wing pattern variation

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Genomics, June 2012
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Title
Transcriptome analysis reveals novel patterning and pigmentation genes underlying Heliconius butterfly wing pattern variation
Published in
BMC Genomics, June 2012
DOI 10.1186/1471-2164-13-288
Pubmed ID
Authors

Heather M Hines, Riccardo Papa, Mayte Ruiz, Alexie Papanicolaou, Charles Wang, H Frederik Nijhout, W Owen McMillan, Robert D Reed

Abstract

Heliconius butterfly wing pattern diversity offers a unique opportunity to investigate how natural genetic variation can drive the evolution of complex adaptive phenotypes. Positional cloning and candidate gene studies have identified a handful of regulatory and pigmentation genes implicated in Heliconius wing pattern variation, but little is known about the greater developmental networks within which these genes interact to pattern a wing. Here we took a large-scale transcriptomic approach to identify the network of genes involved in Heliconius wing pattern development and variation. This included applying over 140 transcriptome microarrays to assay gene expression in dissected wing pattern elements across a range of developmental stages and wing pattern morphs of Heliconius erato. We identified a number of putative early prepattern genes with color-pattern related expression domains. We also identified 51 genes differentially expressed in association with natural color pattern variation. Of these, the previously identified color pattern "switch gene" optix was recovered as the first transcript to show color-specific differential expression. Most differentially expressed genes were transcribed late in pupal development and have roles in cuticle formation or pigment synthesis. These include previously undescribed transporter genes associated with ommochrome pigmentation. Furthermore, we observed upregulation of melanin-repressing genes such as ebony and Dat1 in non-melanic patterns. This study identifies many new genes implicated in butterfly wing pattern development and provides a glimpse into the number and types of genes affected by variation in genes that drive color pattern evolution.

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 155 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 5 3%
United Kingdom 1 <1%
Norway 1 <1%
Australia 1 <1%
Unknown 147 95%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 50 32%
Researcher 17 11%
Student > Master 16 10%
Student > Bachelor 14 9%
Professor > Associate Professor 11 7%
Other 28 18%
Unknown 19 12%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 103 66%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 23 15%
Medicine and Dentistry 2 1%
Unspecified 1 <1%
Arts and Humanities 1 <1%
Other 2 1%
Unknown 23 15%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 01 August 2012.
All research outputs
#20,656,161
of 25,373,627 outputs
Outputs from BMC Genomics
#8,709
of 11,244 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#138,708
of 177,482 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Genomics
#114
of 155 outputs
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