Ultraviolet Differences between the Sulphur Butterflies, Colias eurytheme and C. philodice, and a Possible Isolating Mechanism

Silberglied, Robert E.; Taylor, Orley R.

doi:10.1038/241406a0

Cited by 102 publications

(84 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…As both these styles of gene action seem quite likely, roughly 50 per cent of male-limited characters in butterflies (and just possibly in birds like ducks and pheasants) should turn out to be X-linked. This is exactly what has been found in the only investigation so far made of the repertoire of secondary sexual characters in a male butterfly; on hybridising the closely related species Colias eurytheme and C. philodice, it was found that both ultraviolet reflectance and hydrocarbon pheromones (the secondary male characters of eurytheme) were X-linked, and that the n-hexyl esters which are the male pheromones of philodice were controlled by autosomal genes (Silberglied and Taylor, 1973;Grula and Taylor, 1979).…”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 61%

“…The scarcity of information on sex-linked genes has prevented an evaluation of the prevalence of dosage compensation in groups other than mammals, birds (which lack compensation), and Drosophila (Cock, 1964). Indeed, 6PGD in Heliconius is only the third example of an X-linked locus in butterflies (Silberglied and Taylor, 1973;Grula and Taylor, 1979), and only the second X-linked enzyme in a lepidopteran (May, Leonard and Vadas, 1977). The approximately two-fold difference in 6PGD activities of males and females is a clear case of the absence of dosage compensation.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Absence of dosage compensation for a sex-linked enzyme in butterflies (Heliconius)

Johnson

Turner

1979

Heredity

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SUMMARY6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (6PGD) is sex-linked in Heliconius butterflies. Within each of two species tested, the specific activity of 6PGD in males (the homogametic sex) is approximately twice that in females. This confirms that sex-linked genes in lepidoptera, as in birds, are not dosage-compensated. This absence of dosage compensation may be the basis for the frequent femalelimitation of mimicry, and explains the peculiarity that the loci involved are never sex-linked, whereas male-limited sexual characters can be both sex-linked and autosomal.

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Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 61%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Absence of dosage compensation for a sex-linked enzyme in butterflies (Heliconius)

Johnson

Turner

1979

Heredity

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“…Coherent scattering, causing iridescence, is encountered in the dorsal wings of males of many pierid species (Silberglied and Taylor, 1973;Kemp et al, 2005;Rutowski et al, 2007). A survey of reflectance spectra shows that the iridescence emerges as a distinct band, with bandwidth o100 nm, peaking virtually always in the UV-violet wavelength range.…”

Section: Article In Pressmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Light scattering by the lamellae is then coherent, resulting in iridescence, which is usually invisible for the human eye (but not for butterfly eyes), as predominantly ultraviolet light is reflected (Ghiradella et al, 1972). The wings of female pierids are generally non-iridescent, and consequently many pierid species have a marked sexual dichromatism (Silberglied and Taylor, 1973;Kemp et al, 2005;Rutowski et al, 2007). The physical basis of the sexual dichromatism of many species in the Coliadinae and Colotis group, hence, is sex-dependent coherent light scattering.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Colors and pterin pigmentation of pierid butterfly wings

Wijnen

Leertouwer

Stavenga

2007

Journal of Insect Physiology

105

103

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The reflectance of pierid butterfly wings is principally determined by the incoherent scattering of incident light and the absorption by pterin pigments in the scale structures. Coherent scattering causing iridescence is frequently encountered in the dorsal wings or wing tips of male pierids. We investigated the effect of the pterins on wing reflectance by local extraction of the pigments with aqueous ammonia and simultaneous spectrophotometric measurements. The ultraviolet-absorbing leucopterin was extracted prominently from the white Pieris species, and the violet-absorbing xanthopterin and blue-absorbing erythropterin were mainly derived from the yellow-and orangecolored Coliadinae, but they were also extracted from the dorsal wing tips of many male Pierinae. Absorption spectra deduced from wing reflectance spectra distinctly diverge from the absorption spectra of the extracted pigments, which indicate that when embedded in wing scales the pterins differ from those in solution. The evolution of pierid wing coloration is discussed. r

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“…Sympatric butterfly relatives that look similar from the human perspective are readily distinguished, for instance, by UVbased signals (Silberglied, 1979). Moreover, females have been shown to use species-specific UV reflectance patterns to identify mates (Silberglied and Taylor, 1973;Rutowski, 1977;Robertson and Monteiro, 2005). Nonetheless, discussions of the evolution of butterfly wing colors in relation to visually mediated components of courtship have typically been put forth in the absence of information about sensory receptors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beauty in the eye of the beholder: the two blue opsins of lycaenid butterflies and the opsin gene-driven evolution of sexually dimorphic eyes

Sison-Mangus

Bernard

Lampel

et al. 2006

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARY Although previous investigations have shown that wing coloration is an important component of social signaling in butterflies, the contribution of opsin evolution to sexual wing color dichromatism and interspecific divergence remains largely unexplored. Here we report that the butterfly Lycaena rubidus has evolved sexually dimorphic eyes due to changes in the regulation of opsin expression patterns to match the contrasting life histories of males and females. The L. rubidus eye contains four visual pigments with peak sensitivities in the ultraviolet (UV;λ max=360 nm), blue (B; λmax=437 nm and 500 nm, respectively) and long (LW; λmax=568 nm) wavelength range. By combining in situ hybridization of cloned opsinencoding cDNAs with epi-microspectrophotometry, we found that all four opsin mRNAs and visual pigments are expressed in the eyes in a sex-specific manner. The male dorsal eye, which contains only UV and B (λmax=437 nm)visual pigments, indeed expresses two short wavelength opsin mRNAs, UVRh and BRh1. The female dorsal eye, which also has the UV and B (λmax=437 nm) visual pigments, also contains the LW visual pigment, and likewise expresses UVRh, BRh1 and LWRh mRNAs. Unexpectedly, in the female dorsal eye, we also found BRh1 co-expressed with LWRh in the R3-8 photoreceptor cells. The ventral eye of both sexes, on the other hand, contains all four visual pigments and expresses all four opsin mRNAs in a non-overlapping fashion. Surprisingly, we found that the 500 nm visual pigment is encoded by a duplicate blue opsin gene, BRh2. Further, using molecular phylogenetic methods we trace this novel blue opsin gene to a duplication event at the base of the Polyommatine+Thecline+Lycaenine radiation. The blue opsin gene duplication may help explain the blueness of blue lycaenid butterflies.

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Ultraviolet Differences between the Sulphur Butterflies, Colias eurytheme and C. philodice, and a Possible Isolating Mechanism

Cited by 102 publications

References 13 publications

Absence of dosage compensation for a sex-linked enzyme in butterflies (Heliconius)

Absence of dosage compensation for a sex-linked enzyme in butterflies (Heliconius)

Colors and pterin pigmentation of pierid butterfly wings

Beauty in the eye of the beholder: the two blue opsins of lycaenid butterflies and the opsin gene-driven evolution of sexually dimorphic eyes

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