Journal
NATURE GENETICS
Volume 48, Issue 1, Pages 84-+Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/ng.3430
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Funding
- Knut and Alice Wallenberg foundation
- National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) [2013CB835204]
- Shenzhen municipal government of China (DRC-SZ) [843]
- Key Laboratory of Genomics
- Chinese Ministry of Agriculture
- Platform of Whole Genome-Based Molecular Breeding
- ShenZhen Engineering Laboratory for Genomics-Assisted Animal Breeding
- Swedish Research Council [1989-2546, 1992-2685, 2013-5418, 2001-6005, 80576801, 70374401]
- Uppsala University and Hospital
- Science for Life Laboratory
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The ruff is a Palearctic wader with a spectacular lekking behavior where highly ornamented males compete for females(1-4). This bird has one of the most remarkable mating systems in the animal kingdom, comprising three different male morphs (independents, satellites and faeders) that differ in behavior, plumage color and body size. Remarkably, the satellite and faeder morphs are controlled by dominant alleles(5,6). Here we have used whole-genome sequencing and resolved the enigma of how such complex phenotypic differences can have a simple genetic basis. The Satellite and Faeder alleles are both associated with a 4.5-Mb inversion that occurred about 3.8 million years ago. We propose an evolutionary scenario where the Satellite chromosome arose by a rare recombination event about 500,000 years ago. The ruff mating system is the result of an evolutionary process in which multiple genetic changes contributing to phenotypic differences between morphs have accumulated within the inverted region.
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