EDGE CMT: Origin and diversification of butterfly color patterns

EDGE CMT：蝴蝶色彩图案的起源和多样化

• 批准号: 2128164
• 负责人: Robert Reed
• 金额: $ 139万
• 依托单位: Cornell University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-08-15 至 2025-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2128164&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EDGE; CMT; Origin; diversification; butterfly

When we look across the diversity of life, we see many complex traits that are unique to certain groups of organisms. Feathers in birds, hair in mammals, and flowers in angiosperms, for example. It is a major question in biology how these kinds of novel traits first appear. What is the genetic basis of newness? Recent work across many species has shown that novel traits such as these are largely generated by old genes that have been repurposed for new roles. Novelty appears to emerge through a reshuffling of older genetic building blocks, which are proposed to be ancient subnetworks of interacting genes. But where do these gene networks come from in the first place? And how are they rewired to generate complex new traits? With this funding, Reed and colleagues are beginning to address these questions by looking at the origin of color in butterflies. They are characterizing the gene networks that underlie color pigmentation in butterflies, and they are determining how specific genetic changes caused these networks to be repurposed from ancestral roles in processes such as neural development, to make butterfly wing patterns. This work serves as a case study to help biologists understand the developmental genetic mechanisms that underlie the genesis and diversification of complex biological traits. The project also includes training in biology research skills of graduate and undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds, the development and dissemination of instructional videos for genomic methods, and the establishment of a web-based resource for functional genomics in butterflies.A core concept in modern biology is that novel morphological traits originate from gene regulatory networks that predate the traits themselves. Surprisingly, however, little is known about the specific genetic mechanisms that underlie the origin and repurposing of such gene networks. With this funding, Reed and colleagues develop the regulatory network encompassing the butterfly color pattern gene optix into a model for exploring the regulatory architecture of trait diversification. optix is a homeobox transcription factor that plays a deeply ancestral role in neural and retinal development in both invertebrates and vertebrates. In butterflies, however, this gene underwent a radical co-option event where it gained a novel function as a master regulator of wing pigmentation, including playing key roles in adaptation and mimicry. Thus, the researchers have a situation in Lepidoptera where they can pinpoint the phylogenetic timing of a major optix co-option and repurposing event, where this gene appeared as a de novo regulator of color patterns. Reed and colleagues are leveraging this opportunity to take a multi-species comparative approach to characterize the history of the optix regulatory network as it gained its novel adaptive function in color pattern regulation. Using optix as the focal point, they are characterizing the cis-, upstream, and downstream regulatory dynamics of regulatory co-option, and construct a comprehensive case study of how a new gene regulatory network can emerge from the genome to generate new morphological features – in this case, color itself.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

当我们探讨生活的多样性时，我们会看到许多复杂的特征在某些生物体中是独有的。例如，鸟类的羽毛，哺乳动物的头发和被子植物中的花朵。这是生物学中的一个主要问题，这些新型特征如何首先出现。新的遗传基础是什么？许多物种的最新工作表明，诸如此类的新型特征主要是由已重新用于新角色的旧基因产生的。新颖性似乎是通过重新融合了较旧的遗传构建基块的，这被认为是相互作用基因的古代子网。但是，这些基因网络首先来自哪里？他们如何重新建立复杂的新特征？有了这笔资金，Reed及其同事开始通过查看蝴蝶的颜色来源来解决这些问题。它们正在表征蝴蝶中彩色色素沉着的基因网络，并确定特定的遗传变化是如何导致这些网络在神经发育等过程中的祖先角色重新塑造的，以使蝴蝶翼模式。这项工作是一项案例研究，旨在帮助生物学家了解复杂生物学特征的起源和多样化的发展遗传机制。该项目还包括来自潜水员背景的研究生和本科生生物学研究技能的培训，用于基因组方法的教学视频的发展和传播，以及建立蝴蝶中基于Web的基于网络的功能基因组学资源。然而，令人惊讶的是，关于这种基因网络起源和重新利用的特定遗传机制知之甚少。借助这笔资金，Reed及其同事开发了涵盖蝴蝶颜色模式基因Optix的监管网络，以探索特征多元化的调节结构的模型。 Optix是同型转录因子，在无脊椎动物和脊椎动物的神经元和视网膜发育中起着深层祖先的作用。然而，在蝴蝶中，该基因进行了一个激进的合作事件，在该事件中，它获得了翅膀色素沉着的主要调节剂的新功能，包括在适应和模仿中扮演关键角色。这就是研究人员在鳞翅目中的情况，他们可以确定主要的Optix合作和重新验证事件的系统发育时机，该基因似乎是颜色模式的从头调节剂。芦苇和同事们正在利用这一机会采用多种比较方法来表征Optix调节网络的历史，因为它在色彩模式调节中获得了新的适应性功能。 Using optix as the focal point, they are characterizing the cis-, upstream, and downstream regulatory dynamics of regulatory co-option, and construct a comprehensive case study of how a new gene regulatory network can emerge from the genome to generate new morphological features – in this case, color itself.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed precious of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader影响审查标准。

项目成果

Patterns of selection across gene regulatory networks

• DOI: 10.1016/j.semcdb.2022.03.029
• 发表时间: 2023-04-06
• 期刊: SEMINARS IN CELL & DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY
• 影响因子: 7.3
• 作者: McDonald，Jeanne M. C.;Reed，Robert D.
• 通讯作者: Reed，Robert D.

High level of novelty under the hood of convergent evolution

• DOI: 10.1126/science.ade0004
• 发表时间: 2023-03-10
• 期刊: SCIENCE
• 影响因子: 56.9
• 作者: Belleghem, Steven M. Van;Ruggieri, Angelo A.;Papa, Riccardo
• 通讯作者: Papa, Riccardo

Deep cis-regulatory homology of the butterfly wing pattern ground plan

• DOI: 10.1126/science.abi9407
• 发表时间: 2022-10-20
• 期刊: SCIENCE
• 影响因子: 56.9
• 作者: Mazo-Vargas, Anyi;Langmueller, Anna M.;Reed, Robert D.
• 通讯作者: Reed, Robert D.