San-Jose Luis M, Roulin Alexandre
Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Building Le Biophore, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Building Le Biophore, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2017 Jul 5;372(1724). doi: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0337.
Animal coloration has traditionally been the target of genetic and evolutionary studies. However, until very recently, the study of the genetic basis of animal coloration has been mainly restricted to model species, whereas research on non-model species has been either neglected or mainly based on candidate approaches, and thereby limited by the knowledge obtained in model species. Recent high-throughput sequencing technologies allow us to overcome previous limitations, and open new avenues to study the genetic basis of animal coloration in a broader number of species and colour traits, and to address the general relevance of different genetic structures and their implications for the evolution of colour. In this review, we highlight aspects where genome-wide studies could be of major utility to fill in the gaps in our understanding of the biology and evolution of animal coloration. The new genomic approaches have been promptly adopted to study animal coloration although substantial work is still needed to consider a larger range of species and colour traits, such as those exhibiting continuous variation or based on reflective structures. We argue that a robust advancement in the study of animal coloration will also require large efforts to validate the functional role of the genes and variants discovered using genome-wide tools.This article is part of the themed issue 'Animal coloration: production, perception, function and application'.
动物的体色传统上一直是遗传学和进化研究的对象。然而，直到最近，动物体色遗传基础的研究主要局限于模式物种，而非模式物种的研究要么被忽视，要么主要基于候选基因方法，因此受到模式物种已有知识的限制。最近的高通量测序技术使我们能够克服以往的局限性，并开辟新途径，以研究更多物种和颜色性状的动物体色遗传基础，探讨不同遗传结构的普遍相关性及其对颜色进化的影响。在这篇综述中，我们重点介绍了全基因组研究在填补我们对动物体色生物学和进化理解空白方面可能具有重要作用的一些方面。新的基因组方法已迅速被用于研究动物体色，不过仍需要大量工作来研究更多种类的物种和颜色性状，比如那些呈现连续变异或基于反射结构的性状。我们认为，动物体色研究的稳健进展还需要付出巨大努力，以验证使用全基因组工具发现的基因和变异的功能作用。本文是主题为“动物体色：产生、感知、功能及应用”特刊的一部分。
