Journal
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
Volume 9, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
NATURE PORTFOLIO
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-06116-1
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Funding
- Formation and Recognition, Precursory Research for Embryonic Science and Technology (PRESTO)
- Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST)
- MEXT KAKENHI [18017012, 20017014, 26113708, 221S0002, 17H05848, 18H04828]
- JSPS KAKENHI [22380035]
- NIBB Collaborative Research Programs [18-433]
- Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [20017014, 22380035, 26113708, 18H04828, 17H05848, 18017012] Funding Source: KAKEN
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How genetic information is modified to generate phenotypic variation within a species is one of the central questions in evolutionary biology. Here we focus on the striking intraspecific diversity of >200 aposematic elytral (forewing) colour patterns of the multicoloured Asian ladybird beetle, Harmonia axyridis, which is regulated by a tightly linked genetic locus h. Our loss-of-function analyses, genetic association studies, de novo genome assemblies, and gene expression data reveal that the GATA transcription factor gene pannier is the major regulatory gene located at the h locus, and suggest that repeated inversions and cis-regulatory modifications at pannier led to the expansion of colour pattern variation in H. axyridis. Moreover, we show that the colour-patterning function of pannier is conserved in the seven-spotted ladybird beetle, Coccinella septempunctata, suggesting that H. axyridis' extraordinary intraspecific variation may have arisen from ancient modifications in conserved elytral colour-patterning mechanisms in ladybird beetles.
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