ORCID Profile
0000-0002-0747-7456
Current Organisation
The University of Edinburgh
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Publisher: Wiley
Date: 25-08-2012
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 24-03-2023
DOI: 10.1101/2023.03.24.533969
Abstract: Moths and butterflies (Lepidoptera) have a heterogametic sex chromosome system with females carrying ZW chromosomes and males ZZ. The lack of W chromosomes in early erging lepidopteran lineages has led to the suggestion of an ancestral Z0 system in this clade and a B chromosome origin of the W. This contrasts with the canonical model of W chromosome evolution in which the W would have originated from the same homologous autosomal pair as the Z chromosome. Despite the distinct models proposed, the rapid evolution of the W chromosome has hindered the elucidation of its origin. Here, we present high-quality, chromosome-level genome assemblies of two Hypolimnas species ( Hypolimnas missipus and Hypolimnas bolina) and use the H. misippus assembly to explore the evolution of W chromosomes in butterflies and moths. We show that in H. misippus the W chromosome has higher similarity to the Z chromosome than any other chromosome, which could suggest a possible origin from the same homologous autosome pair as the Z chromosome. However, using genome assemblies of closely related species (ditrysian lineages) containing assembled W chromosomes, we present contrasting evidence suggesting that the W chromosome might have evolved from a B chromosome instead. Crucially, by using a synteny analysis to infer homology, we show that W chromosomes are likely to share a common evolutionary origin in Lepidoptera. This study highlights the difficulty of studying the evolution of W chromosomes and contributes to better understanding its evolutionary origins. Butterflies and moths have a sex determination system in which females carry two different sex chromosomes, Z and W, while males carry two copies of the Z. The evolutionary origin of the W chromosome has been elusive, with many possible scenarios being suggested, such as the independent evolution of W chromosomes in many butterfly and moth species. Here, we present genome assemblies of two Hypolimnas butterfly species and use one of them to shed light on the evolution of the W chromosome. We show that W chromosomes across butterflies and moths are very similar which suggests a shared common origin.
Publisher: PeerJ
Date: 15-08-2023
DOI: 10.7717/PEERJ.15853
Abstract: Sexual selection and conflicts within and between sexes promote morphological ersity of reproductive traits within species. Variation in the morphology of diagnostic reproductive characters within species offer an excellent opportunity to study these evolutionary processes as drivers of species ersification. The African monarch, Danaus chrysippus (Linnaeus, 1758), is widespread across Africa. The species is polytypic, with the respective geographical ranges of the four colour morphs only overlapping in East Africa. Furthermore, some of the populations host an endosymbiotic bacterium, Spiroplasma , which induces son-killing and distorts the local host population sex-ratio, creating sexual conflicts between the females seeking to optimize their fecundity and the limited mating capacity of the rare males. We dissected females from Kenya, Rwanda and South Africa, where Spiroplasma vary in presence and prevalence (high, variable and absent, respectively), and conducted microscopy imaging of their reproductive organs. We then characterized the effect of population, female body size, and female mating status, on the size and shape of different genitalia characters of the D. chrysippus female butterflies. We showed that although the general morphology of the organs is conserved in D. chrysippus , female genitalia vary in size and shape between and within populations. The virgin females have smaller organs, while the same organs were expanded in mated females. Females from highly female-biased populations, where the male-killing Spiroplasma is prevalent, also have a larger area of their corpus bursae covered with signa structures. However, this pattern occurs because a larger proportion of the females remains virgin in the female-biased populations rather than because of male depletion due to the symbiont, as males from sex-ratio distorted populations did not produce significantly smaller nutritious spermatophores.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 30-01-2017
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 15-01-2016
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 16-05-2012
DOI: 10.1038/NATURE11041
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
No related grants have been discovered for Simon Henry Martin.