Electronic versions

DOI

  • Aaron A Comeault
    University of SheffieldUniversity of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
  • Clarissa F Carvalho
    University of Sheffield
  • Stuart Dennis
    University of SheffieldEawag Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology
  • Víctor Soria-Carrasco
    University of Sheffield
  • Patrik Nosil
    University of Sheffield

Ecology and genetics are both of general interest to evolutionary biologists as they can influence the phenotypic and genetic response to selection. The stick insects Timema podura and Timema cristinae exhibit a green/melanistic body color polymorphism that is subject to different ecologically based selective regimes in the two species. Here, we describe aspects of the genetics of this color polymorphism in T. podura, and compare this to previous results in T. cristinae. We first show that similar color phenotypes of the two species cluster in phenotypic space. We then use genome-wide association mapping to show that in both species, color is controlled by few loci, dominance relationships between color alleles are the same, and SNPs associated with color phenotypes colocalize to the same linkage group. Regions within this linkage group that harbor genetic variants associated with color exhibit elevated linkage disequilibrium relative to genome wide expectations, but more strongly so in T. cristinae. We use these results to discuss predictions regarding how the genetics of color could influence levels of phenotypic and genetic variation that segregate within and between populations of T. podura and T. cristinae, drawing parallels with other organisms.

Keywords

  • Animals, Biological Evolution, Color, Genome-Wide Association Study, Insecta/genetics, Phenotype, Pigmentation, Polymorphism, Genetic
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1283-96
Number of pages14
JournalEvolution
Volume70
Issue number6
Early online date22 May 2016
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 21 Jun 2016
Externally publishedYes
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