Journal
NATURE GENETICS
Volume 48, Issue 1, Pages 79-+Publisher
NATURE PORTFOLIO
DOI: 10.1038/ng.3443
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Funding
- UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) [BB/J0189371]
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
- H.F. Guggenheim Foundation
- National Geographic Society
- US National Science Foundation (NSF)
- European Union (EU) Marie Curie fellowship
- NSF Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) program at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council [BB/J018791/1, BB/G00661X/1, BB/J018937/1, BB/K020161/1] Funding Source: researchfish
- Medical Research Council [G0900740, MR/K001744/1] Funding Source: researchfish
- Natural Environment Research Council [NBAF010001, NBAF010003, NE/L005328/1] Funding Source: researchfish
- BBSRC [BB/K020161/1, BB/J018791/1, BB/G00661X/1, BB/J018937/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- MRC [G0900740, MR/K001744/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- NERC [NE/L005328/1, NBAF010003, NBAF010001] Funding Source: UKRI
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Three strikingly different alternative male mating morphs (aggressive 'independents', semicooperative 'satellites' and female-mimic 'faeders') coexist as a balanced polymorphism in the ruff, Philomachus pugnax, a lek-breeding wading bird(1-3). Major differences in body size, ornamentation, and aggressive and mating behaviors are inherited as an autosomal polymorphism(4,5). We show that development into satellites and faeders is determined by a supergene(6-8) consisting of divergent alternative, dominant and non-recombining haplotypes of an inversion on chromosome 11, which contains 125 predicted genes. Independents are homozygous for the ancestral sequence. One breakpoint of the inversion disrupts the essential CENP-N gene (encoding centromere protein N), and pedigree analysis confirms the lethality of homozygosity for the inversion. We describe new differences in behavior, testis size and steroid metabolism among morphs and identify polymorphic genes within the inversion that are likely to contribute to the differences among morphs in reproductive traits.
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