Butterfly research explores the process of evolutionary convergence

The researchers discovered a single gene that controls imitation between different species.

For the past 150 years, scientists have been trying to explain ' convergent evolution '. One of the famous examples of this is how poisonous butterflies from different species evolved to mimic every color pattern of another species in an attempt to hunt.

Now a group of international researchers have solved this mysterious part by identifying a single gene, called optix , which is responsible for expressing red in the wings of many butterflies living in grape fields. . The results of these 10 years of study are published in the Science journal.

' This is our first observation of how imitation and evolutionary convergence occur at a genetic level ,' Reed said. ' We discovered a similar gene that controls the evolution of the red form among butterflies with distant relations. This together with the evidence in other animals is generally dominated by a few genes. Not belonging to tens of thousands of genes in the specific genome, it seems that only a few genes control major changes in evolution from generation to generation . '

Heliconius doris has a variety of colors.

Scientists have spent several years breeding and cultivating weak butterflies in a wide area of ​​the tropics and they can map genes that control color patterns. Riccardo Papa researcher then completed a method to analyze the genome map by observing gene expression in the microscopic butterfly wing.

Finding a strong correlation between the red phenotype and gene expression in a small genome region is a breakthrough that has led to the discovery of these genes. The population genetics studied during breeding, and other colors of the same species that mated naturally confirmed this.

Biologists have answered the question ' is there really only a handful of genes that govern the evolutionary process? 'Reed said. ' This is a good example of how a single gene can control the evolution of complex patterns in nature. Now we want to understand why: What in a particular gene has it cleverly manipulated rapid evolution? '.