Phenotypic variation in Heliconius erato crosses shows that iridescent structural colour is sex-linked and controlled by multiple genes

Bright, highly reflective iridescent colours can be seen across nature and are produced by the scattering of light from nanostructures. butterflies have been widely studied for their diversity and mimicry of wing colour patterns. Despite iridescence evolving multiple times in this genus, little is k...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Interface focus Vol. 9; no. 1; p. 20180047
Main Authors:	Brien, Melanie N, Enciso-Romero, Juan, Parnell, Andrew J, Salazar, Patricio A, Morochz, Carlos, Chalá, Darwin, Bainbridge, Hannah E, Zinn, Thomas, Curran, Emma V, Nadeau, Nicola J
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	England The Royal Society 06-02-2019
Subjects:	quantitative genetics iridescence Heliconius evolution butterflies structural colour
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	Bright, highly reflective iridescent colours can be seen across nature and are produced by the scattering of light from nanostructures. butterflies have been widely studied for their diversity and mimicry of wing colour patterns. Despite iridescence evolving multiple times in this genus, little is known about the genetic basis of the colour and the development of the structures which produce it. can be found across Central and South America, but only races found in western Ecuador and Colombia have developed blue iridescent colour. Here, we use crosses between iridescent and non-iridescent races of to study phenotypic variation in the resulting F generation. Using measurements of blue colour from photographs, we find that iridescent structural colour is a quantitative trait controlled by multiple genes, with strong evidence for loci on the Z sex chromosome. Iridescence is not linked to the Mendelian colour pattern locus that also segregates in these crosses (controlled by the gene ). Small-angle X-ray scattering data show that spacing between longitudinal ridges on the scales, which affects the intensity of the blue reflectance, also varies quantitatively in F crosses.
Bibliography:	One contribution of 11 to a theme issue ‘Living light: optics, ecology and design principles of natural photonic structures’. Electronic supplementary material is available online at https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.4302737.
ISSN:	2042-8898 2042-8901
DOI:	10.1098/rsfs.2018.0047