| Title: | bric a brac controls sex pheromone choice by male European corn borer moths |
| Author(s): | Unbehend M; Kozak GM; Koutroumpa F; Coates BS; Dekker T; Groot AT; Heckel DG; Dopman EB; |
| Address: | "Department of Entomology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany. Department of Biology, Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA. Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Dartmouth, MA, USA. Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, XH, the Netherlands. INRAE, Sorbonne Universite, CNRS, IRD, UPEC, Universite Paris Diderot, Institute of Ecology and Environmental Sciences of Paris, Versailles, Cedex, France. USDA-ARS, Corn Insects and Crop Genetics Research Unit, Ames, IA, USA. Department of Plant Protection Biology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Alnarp, Sweden. Department of Entomology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany. heckel@ice.mpg.de. Department of Biology, Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA. erik.dopman@tufts.edu" |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41467-021-23026-x |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 2041-1723 (Electronic) 2041-1723 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "The sex pheromone system of ~160,000 moth species acts as a powerful form of assortative mating whereby females attract conspecific males with a species-specific blend of volatile compounds. Understanding how female pheromone production and male preference coevolve to produce this diversity requires knowledge of the genes underlying change in both traits. In the European corn borer moth, pheromone blend variation is controlled by two alleles of an autosomal fatty-acyl reductase gene expressed in the female pheromone gland (pgFAR). Here we show that asymmetric male preference is controlled by cis-acting variation in a sex-linked transcription factor expressed in the developing male antenna, bric a brac (bab). A genome-wide association study of preference using pheromone-trapped males implicates variation in the 293 kb bab intron 1, rather than the coding sequence. Linkage disequilibrium between bab intron 1 and pgFAR further validates bab as the preference locus, and demonstrates that the two genes interact to contribute to assortative mating. Thus, lack of physical linkage is not a constraint for coevolutionary divergence of female pheromone production and male behavioral response genes, in contrast to what is often predicted by evolutionary theory" |
| Keywords: | "Aldehyde Oxidoreductases/genetics/metabolism Alleles Animals Evolution, Molecular Female Gene Expression Regulation *Genes, Insect Genome-Wide Association Study Inbreeding Insect Proteins/genetics/metabolism Linkage Disequilibrium Male Mating Preference, ;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineUnbehend, Melanie Kozak, Genevieve M Koutroumpa, Fotini Coates, Brad S Dekker, Teun Groot, Astrid T Heckel, David G Dopman, Erik B eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S. England 2021/05/16 Nat Commun. 2021 May 14; 12(1):2818. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-23026-x" |
