First-generation linkage map of the warningly colored butterfly Heliconius erato

Abstract

We report the first genetic linkage map of Heliconius erato, a species that shows remarkable variation in its warningly colored wing patterns. We use crosses between H. erato and its sister species, H. himera, to place two major color pattern genes, D and Cr, on a linkage map containing AFLP, allozyme, microsatellite and single-copy nuclear loci. We identified all 21 linkage groups in an initial genetic screen of 22 progeny from an F1 female  male H. himera family. Of the 229 markers, 87 used to identify linkage groups were also informative in 35 progeny from a sibling backcross (H. himera female  F1 male). With these, and an additional 33 markers informative in the second family, we constructed recombinational maps for 19 of the 21 linkage groups. These maps varied in length from 18.1 to 431.1 centimorgans (cM) and yielded an estimated total length of 2400 cM. The average distance between markers was 23 cM, and eight of the 19 linkage groups, including the sex chromosome (Z) and the chromosome containing the Cr locus, contained two or more codominant anchor loci. Of the three potential candidate genes mapped here, Cubitus interruptus (Ci), Decapentaplegic (Dpp) and Wingless (Wg), only Ci was linked, although loosely, to a known Heliconius color pattern locus. This work is an important first step for constructing a denser genetic map of the H. erato color pattern radiation and for a comparative genomic study of the architecture of mimicry in Heliconius butterflies. Heredity (2005) 94, 408-417.

Simple sequence repeat-based consensus linkage map of Bombyx mori

“…Even though Drosophila species and dipterans in general show a high degree of intrachromosomal rearrangement, chromosome arms have remained relatively syntenic over long evolutionary periods (27) Table 3). The SSR map will enable mapping many additional well conserved genes identified as ESTs (32) and in the silkworm genome (21,26) to serve as anchors for a broad comparative analysis of synteny among Lepidoptera and other insects (30,31).…”

Molecular systematics of the butterfly genus Ithomia (Lepidoptera: Ithomiinae): a composite phylogenetic hypothesis based on seven genes

“…Heliconius it is known that Ef1 , wg and RpL5 are on diVerent chromosomes (Jiggins et al, 2004b;Tobler et al, 2004). Information is not available for tektin.…”

Parallel Genetic Architecture of Parallel Adaptive Radiations in Mimetic Heliconius Butterflies

“…To address this issue, we compared the genomic positions of three color-patterning loci that act similarly in the two radiations. Using two hybrid crosses between different Heliconius erato races and the closely related species H. himera, Tobler et al (2005) and Kapan et al (2006) localized the positions of three large-effect colorpatterning loci. The D locus controls the distribution of red/orange scales on the wings, the Cr locus controls the placement of melanic scales on the fore and hind wings that ''shutter'' or limit the distribution of yellow and white scales on the wings, and the Sd locus controls the portion of the forewing that is covered in melanic scales ( Figure 1; Sheppard et al 1985;Mallet 1989;Jiggins and McMillan 1997;Kapan et al 2006).…”

“…To evaluate the potential for homology between the two radiations, we identified the positions of three colorpatterning loci that act similarly to those mapped in H. erato, on a map derived from a hybrid cross between two species from the other Heliconius radiation, H. cydno and H. pachinus. The G locus controls the distribution of (Tobler et al 2005) is substantially longer than that of H. erato etylus , suggesting that distances may be artificially inflated in the former. H. cydno Yb is also syntenic with microsatellite loci Hm01 and Hm08, which are linked to Yb in crosses between races of sister species H. melpomene ( Jiggins et al 2005;Joron et al 2006).…”

“…Although ef1a is syntenic with ptc and Sd in H. erato etylus, its exact position is unknown . H. erato maps were estimated using backcross or F 2 broods derived from crosses between H. himera and either H. erato cyrbia (for the linkage group with Cr) as described in Tobler et al (2005) or H. erato etylus (for linkage groups with D and Sd) as described in Kapan et al (2006). The H. melpomene Yb linkage group was mapped using F 2 broods derived from crosses between H. m. cythera and H. m. melpomene as described in Jiggins et al (2005) and Joron et al (2006).…”