Evolution of Behavior: Genotype to Phenotype

Inside the supergene of the bird with four sexes

“…Although mutations in coding regions do cause phenotypic divergence in some cases, particularly for rapidly evolving gene families such as odorant receptors and G-protein coupled receptors (Bendesky & Bargmann, 2011;Niepoth & Bendesky, 2020), they explain only a portion of the diversity found in nature. Empirical evidence is accumulating that mutations in non-coding, regulatory regions, outside the coding sequence, are a major source of phenotypic divergence (Merritt, 2019;Wittkopp & Kalay, 2012;Wray, 2007). Mutations in regulatory elements such as promoters and enhancers can increase or decrease transcription of that gene as well as affect the distribution of its expression in the body or the brain.…”