近日，德国慕尼黑大学Richard M. Merrill等研究人员合作揭示视觉偏好基因的适应性渗入。该研究于2024年3月22日发表于国际一流学术期刊《科学》。

研究人员利用了袖蝶显示的明亮警告图案的多样性，这些图案也用于择偶。结合行为、种群基因组和表达分析，研究人员发现两个袖蝶物种通过杂交交换遗传物质，演化出了对红色图案的相同偏好。regucalcin1的神经表达与不同种群的视觉偏好相关，用CRISPR-Cas9干扰regucalcin1会损害对同种雌性的求偶行为，从而提供了基因与行为之间的直接联系。

这些研究结果支持了杂交在行为演化过程中的作用，并展示了视觉引导的行为如何在基因组中编码，从而促进适应和物种分化。

据悉，视觉偏好是择偶和性选择的重要驱动力，但人们对视觉偏好如何在遗传水平上演化却知之甚少。

附：英文原文

Title: Adaptive introgression of a visual preference gene

Author: Matteo Rossi, Alexander E. Hausmann, Pepe Alcami, Markus Moest, Rodaria Roussou, Steven M. Van Belleghem, Daniel Shane Wright, Chi-Yun Kuo, Daniela Lozano-Urrego, Arif Maulana, Lina Melo-Flórez, Geraldine Rueda-Muoz, Saoirse McMahon, Mauricio Linares, Christof Osman, W. Owen McMillan, Carolina Pardo-Diaz, Camilo Salazar, Richard M. Merrill

Issue&Volume: 2024-03-22

Abstract: Visual preferences are important drivers of mate choice and sexual selection, but little is known of how they evolve at the genetic level. In this study, we took advantage of the diversity of bright warning patterns displayed by Heliconius butterflies, which are also used during mate choice. Combining behavioral, population genomic, and expression analyses, we show that two Heliconius species have evolved the same preferences for red patterns by exchanging genetic material through hybridization. Neural expression of regucalcin1 correlates with visual preference across populations, and disruption of regucalcin1 with CRISPR-Cas9 impairs courtship toward conspecific females, providing a direct link between gene and behavior. Our results support a role for hybridization during behavioral evolution and show how visually guided behaviors contributing to adaptation and speciation are encoded within the genome.

DOI: adj9201

Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adj9201