RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Analysis of 19 Heliconiine Butterflies Shows Rapid TE-based Diversification and Multiple SINE Births and Deaths JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 596502 DO 10.1101/596502 A1 David A Ray A1 Jenna R Grimshaw A1 Michaela K Halsey A1 Jennifer M Korstian A1 Austin B Osmanski A1 Kevin AM Sullivan A1 Kristen A Wolf A1 Harsith Reddy A1 Nicole Foley A1 Richard D Stevens A1 Binyamin Knisbacher A1 Orr Levy A1 Brian Counterman A1 Nathan B Edelman A1 James Mallet YR 2019 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/04/04/596502.abstract AB Transposable elements (TEs) play major roles in the evolution of genome structure and function. However, because of their repetitive nature, they are difficult to annotate and discovering the specific roles they may play in a lineage can be a daunting task. Heliconiine butterflies are models for the study of multiple evolutionary processes including phenotype evolution and hybridization. We attempted to determine how TEs may play a role in the diversification of genomes within this clade by performing a detailed examination of TE content and accumulation in 19 species whose genomes were recently sequenced. We found that TE content has diverged substantially and rapidly in the time since several subclades shared a common ancestor with each lineage harboring a unique TE repertoire. Several novel SINE lineages have been established that are restricted to a subset of species. Furthermore, the previously described SINE, Metulj, appears to have gone extinct in two subclades while expanding to significant numbers in others. Finally, a burst of TE origination corresponds temporally to a burst of speciation in the clade, potentially providing support to hypotheses that TEs are drivers of genotypic and phenotypic diversification. This diversity in TE content and activity has the potential to impact how heliconiine butterflies continue to evolve and diverge.