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Multiple loci linked to inversions are associated with eye size variation in species of the Drosophila virilis phylad
- Source :
- Scientific Reports, Vol 10, Iss 1, Pp 1-17 (2020), Scientific Reports
- Publication Year :
- 2020
- Publisher :
- Nature Publishing Group, 2020.
-
Abstract
- The size and shape of organs is tightly controlled to achieve optimal function. Natural morphological variations often represent functional adaptations to an ever-changing environment. For instance, variation in head morphology is pervasive in insects and the underlying molecular basis is starting to be revealed in the Drosophila genus for species of the melanogaster group. However, it remains unclear whether similar diversifications are governed by similar or different molecular mechanisms over longer timescales. To address this issue, we used species of the virilis phylad because they have been diverging from D. melanogaster for at least 40 million years. Our comprehensive morphological survey revealed remarkable differences in eye size and head shape among these species with D. novamexicana having the smallest eyes and southern D. americana populations having the largest eyes. We show that the genetic architecture underlying eye size variation is complex with multiple associated genetic variants located on most chromosomes. Our genome wide association study (GWAS) strongly suggests that some of the putative causative variants are associated with the presence of inversions. Indeed, northern populations of D. americana share derived inversions with D. novamexicana and they show smaller eyes compared to southern ones. Intriguingly, we observed a significant enrichment of genes involved in eye development on the 4th chromosome after intersecting chromosomal regions associated with phenotypic differences with those showing high differentiation among D. americana populations. We propose that variants associated with chromosomal inversions contribute to both intra- and interspecific variation in eye size among species of the virilis phylad. NP, MR, BH and GW were funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaf (DFG, Grant Number: PO 19 1648/3-1) to NP. MR was funded by the Volkswagen Foundation (Support for Europe, Grant Number: 85983-1) to NP and JV. Many thanks to the Deep-Sequencing Core Facility of the Universitätsmedizin Göttingen (UMG) for next generation sequencing. We acknowledge support by the Open Access Publication Funds of the Göttingen University. Open access funding provided by Projekt DEAL.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
Drosophila / anatomy & histology
Eye / anatomy & histology
Anatomic Variation / genetics
lcsh:Medicine
Genome-wide association study
Eye
Genome-wide association studies
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
Drosophila / genetics
Article
Evolutionary genetics
03 medical and health sciences
Species Specificity
Chromosome Inversion / genetics
Melanogaster
Animals
lcsh:Science
Gene
Drosophila
030304 developmental biology
Genetic Loci / genetics
0303 health sciences
biology
lcsh:R
Anatomic Variation
Chromosome
Organ Size
biology.organism_classification
Phenotype
Genetic architecture
Drosophila virilis
Organ Size / genetics
Genetic Loci
Evolutionary biology
Chromosome Inversion
lcsh:Q
Structural variation
Genome-Wide Association Study
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 20452322
- Volume :
- 10
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Scientific Reports
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....514ff34a945e092d5399bf7e20c367fd