The Loci of Insect Phenotypic Evolution

Abstract

Insects are important elements of terrestrial ecosystems because they pollinate plants, destroy crops, transmit diseases to livestock and humans, and are important components of food chains. Here I used Gephebase, a manually curated database of genetic variants associated with natural and domesticated trait variation, to explore current knowledge about the genes and the mutations known to contribute to natural phenotypic variation in insects. Analysis of over 600 mutations reveals that data are concentrated towards certain species and traits and that experimental approaches have changed over time. The distribution of coding and cis-regulatory changes varies with traits, experimental approaches and identified gene loci. Recent studies highlight the important role of standing variation, repeated mutations in hotspot genes, recombination, inversions, and introgression.HighlightsGephebase compiles more than 600 genes and mutations contributing to insect natural variationOur genetic knowledge is biased towards certain traits and insect speciesExperimental approaches and studied insect species have changed over the yearsThe relative distribution of coding and cis-regulatory mutations varies with traits and genesClusters of causal mutations are more frequently found in insects than in other organisms