Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 368, Issue 6496, Pages 1270-+Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.aba0803
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Funding
- Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT) through POPH-QREN funds from the European Social Fund
- Portuguese MCTES [IF/00283/2014/CP1256/CT0012, CEECINST/00014/2018]
- National Funds [Transitory Norm contract] [DL57/2016/CP1440/CT0006]
- Biodiversity, Genetics, and Evolution (BIODIV) Ph.D. program [PD/BD/114042/2015, PD/BD/114028/2015, PD/BD/128492/2017]
- NORTE2020 through Portugal 2020
- FEDER
- National Funds through FCT
- University of Tulsa
- [PTDC/BIA-EVL/31569/2017 - NORTE - 01-0145-FEDER-30288]
- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia [PD/BD/114042/2015, PD/BD/128492/2017, PD/BD/114028/2015] Funding Source: FCT
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Sexual dichromatism, a difference in coloration between males and females, may be due to sexual selection for ornamentation and mate choice. Here, we show that carotenoid-based dichromatism in mosaic canaries, a hybrid phenotype that arises in offspring of the sexually dichromatic red siskin and monochromatic canaries, is controlled by the gene that encodes the carotenoid-cleaving enzyme b-carotene oxygenase 2 (BCO2). Dichromatism in mosaic canaries is explained by differential carotenoid degradation in the integument, rather than sex-specific variation in physiological functions such as pigment uptake or transport. Transcriptome analyses suggest that carotenoid degradation in the integument might be a common mechanism contributing to sexual dichromatism across finches. These results suggest that differences in ornamental coloration between sexes can evolve through simple molecular mechanisms controlled by genes of major effect.
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