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A major locus controls a biologically active pheromone component in Heliconius melpomene

View ORCID ProfileKelsey J.R.P. Byers, Kathy Darragh, Jamie Musgrove, Diana Abondano Almeida, Sylvia Fernanda Garza, Ian A. Warren, Pasi Rastas, Marek Kucka, Yingguang Frank Chan, Richard M. Merrill, Stefan Schulz, W. Owen McMillan, Chris D. Jiggins
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/739037
Kelsey J.R.P. Byers
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United KingdomSmithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama, Panama
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  • ORCID record for Kelsey J.R.P. Byers
Kathy Darragh
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United KingdomSmithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama, Panama
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Jamie Musgrove
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama, Panama
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Diana Abondano Almeida
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama, PanamaInstitute for Ecology, Evolution and Diversity, Goethe Universität, Frankfurt, Germany
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Sylvia Fernanda Garza
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama, PanamaDepartment of Collective Behaviour, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour, Konstanz, Germany & Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
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Ian A. Warren
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
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Pasi Rastas
Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
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Marek Kucka
Friedrich Miescher Laboratory of the Max Planck Society, Tuebingen, Germany
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Yingguang Frank Chan
Friedrich Miescher Laboratory of the Max Planck Society, Tuebingen, Germany
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Richard M. Merrill
Division of Evolutionary Biology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany
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Stefan Schulz
Institute of Organic Chemistry, Department of Life Sciences, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany
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W. Owen McMillan
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama, Panama
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Chris D. Jiggins
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United KingdomSmithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama, Panama
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  • For correspondence: c.jiggins@zoo.cam.ac.uk
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Abstract

Pheromones are important for courtship and mate choice in many insects, but we know relatively little of their role in butterflies. The butterfly Heliconius melpomene uses a complex blend of wing androconial compounds during courtship. Electroantennography in H. melpomene and its close relative H. cydno showed that responses to androconial extracts were not species-specific. Females of both species responded more strongly to the H. cydno extract, suggesting conservation of peripheral nervous system elements across the two species. Individual blend components provoked little to no response, with the exception of octadecanal, a major component of the H. melpomene blend. Supplementing octadecanal on the wings of octadecanal-rich H. melpomene males led to an increase in the time until mating, demonstrating the bioactivity of octadecanal in Heliconius. Using quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping, we identified a single locus on chromosome 20 responsible for 41% of the parental species’ difference in octadecanal production. This QTL does not overlap with any of the major wing color or mate choice loci, nor does it overlap with known regions of elevated or reduced FST. A set of 16 candidate fatty acid biosynthesis genes lies underneath the QTL.

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Posted August 19, 2019.
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A major locus controls a biologically active pheromone component in Heliconius melpomene
Kelsey J.R.P. Byers, Kathy Darragh, Jamie Musgrove, Diana Abondano Almeida, Sylvia Fernanda Garza, Ian A. Warren, Pasi Rastas, Marek Kucka, Yingguang Frank Chan, Richard M. Merrill, Stefan Schulz, W. Owen McMillan, Chris D. Jiggins
bioRxiv 739037; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/739037
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A major locus controls a biologically active pheromone component in Heliconius melpomene
Kelsey J.R.P. Byers, Kathy Darragh, Jamie Musgrove, Diana Abondano Almeida, Sylvia Fernanda Garza, Ian A. Warren, Pasi Rastas, Marek Kucka, Yingguang Frank Chan, Richard M. Merrill, Stefan Schulz, W. Owen McMillan, Chris D. Jiggins
bioRxiv 739037; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/739037

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