Back to Search
Start Over
Crossing fitness valleys: empirical estimation of a fitness landscape associated with polymorphic mimicry
- Source :
- Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Containing papers of a Biological character. Royal Society (Great Britain), Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Containing papers of a Biological character. Royal Society (Great Britain), Royal Society, The, 2016, ⟨10.1098/rspb.2016.0391⟩, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
- Publication Year :
- 2016
- Publisher :
- HAL CCSD, 2016.
-
Abstract
- Characterizing fitness landscapes associated with polymorphic adaptive traits enables investigation of mechanisms allowing transitions between fitness peaks. Here, we explore how natural selection can promote genetic mechanisms preventing heterozygous phenotypes from falling into non-adaptive valleys. Polymorphic mimicry is an ideal system to investigate such fitness landscapes, because the direction of selection acting on complex mimetic colour patterns can be predicted by the local mimetic community composition. Using more than 5000 artificial butterflies displaying colour patterns exhibited by the polymorphic Müllerian mimicHeliconius numata, we directly tested the role of wild predators in shaping fitness landscapes. We compared predation rates on mimetic phenotypes (homozygotes at the supergene controlling colour pattern), intermediate phenotypes (heterozygotes), exotic morphs (absent from the local community) and palatable cryptic phenotypes. Exotic morphs were significantly more attacked than local morphs, highlighting predators' discriminatory capacities. Overall, intermediates were attacked twice as much as local homozygotes, suggesting the existence of deep fitness valleys promoting strict dominance and reduced recombination between supergene alleles. By including information on predators' colour perception, we also showed that protection on intermediates strongly depends on their phenotypic similarity to homozygous phenotypes and that ridges exist between similar phenotypes, which may facilitate divergence in colour patterns.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
0301 basic medicine
genetic structures
Fitness landscape
Adaptation, Biological
Genetic Fitness
01 natural sciences
Müllerian mimicry
cognition Keywords: passion-vine butterfly
Research Articles
Biological Mimicry
generalization
General Environmental Science
Genetics
Natural selection
Pigmentation
[SDV.BID.EVO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Biodiversity/Populations and Evolution [q-bio.PE]
General Medicine
Heliconius numata
Phenotype
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
Butterflies
Color Perception
Subject Areas: evolution
Biology
dominance
Models, Biological
010603 evolutionary biology
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
[SDV.BDLR.RS]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Reproductive Biology/Sexual reproduction
03 medical and health sciences
[SDV.EE.ECO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology, environment/Ecosystems
[SDV.BA.ZV]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Animal biology/Vertebrate Zoology
Animals
aposematism
Selection, Genetic
Allele
passion-vine butterfly
Polymorphism, Genetic
General Immunology and Microbiology
biology.organism_classification
heterozygote
behaviour
[SDV.BA.ZI]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Animal biology/Invertebrate Zoology
030104 developmental biology
Predatory Behavior
Mimicry
linkage disequilibrium
[SDV.EE.IEO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology, environment/Symbiosis
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 09501193
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Containing papers of a Biological character. Royal Society (Great Britain), Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Containing papers of a Biological character. Royal Society (Great Britain), Royal Society, The, 2016, ⟨10.1098/rspb.2016.0391⟩, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....fbd9bcdb26176787841c66ca37e0eac1