| Title: | "Within-population variability in a moth sex pheromone blend, part 2: selection towards fixation" |
| Author(s): | Groot AT; van Wijk M; Villacis-Perez E; Kuperus P; Schofl G; van Veldhuizen D; Heckel DG; |
| Address: | "Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098 XH Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Department Entomology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Hans Knoell Strasse 8, 07745 Jena, Germany" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 2054-5703 (Print) 2054-5703 (Electronic) 2054-5703 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "To understand how variation in sexual communication systems evolves, the genetic architecture underlying sexual signals and responses needs to be identified. Especially in animals where mating signals are important for mate recognition, and signals and responses are governed by independently assorting genes, it is difficult to envision how signals and preferences can (co)evolve. Moths are a prime example of such animals. In the noctuid moth Heliothis virescens, we found within-population variation in the female pheromone. In previous selection experiments followed by quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis and expression analysis of candidate desaturase genes, we developed a model involving a trans-acting repressor of the delta-11-desaturase. In our current study with new selection lines, we fixed the most extreme phenotype and found a single underlying mutation: a premature stop codon in the first coding exon of delta-11-desaturase, which we could trace back to its origin in the laboratory. Interestingly, we found no pleiotropic effects of this knock-out mutation on the male physiological or behavioural response, or on growth or fertility. This finding is in contrast to Drosophila melanogaster, where a single desaturase gene affects both female pheromone production and male behavioural response, but similar to other Lepidoptera where these traits are under independent genetic control. To our knowledge, this is the first time that a single point mutation has been identified that underlies the phenotypic variation in the pheromone signal of a moth" |
| Keywords: | Animals;Heliothis virescens QTL analysis delta-11-desaturase point mutation sex pheromone; |
| Notes: | "PubMed-not-MEDLINEGroot, Astrid T van Wijk, Michiel Villacis-Perez, Ernesto Kuperus, Peter Schofl, Gerhard van Veldhuizen, Dennis Heckel, David G eng England 2019/04/30 R Soc Open Sci. 2019 Mar 13; 6(3):182050. doi: 10.1098/rsos.182050. eCollection 2019 Mar" |
