Blankers Thomas, Oh Kevin P, Shaw Kerry L
Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
Genes (Basel). 2018 Jul 10;9(7):346. doi: 10.3390/genes9070346.
Mating behavior divergence can make significant contributions to reproductive isolation and speciation in various biogeographic contexts. However, whether the genetic architecture underlying mating behavior divergence is related to the biogeographic history and the tempo and mode of speciation remains poorly understood. Here, we use quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping to infer the number, distribution, and effect size of mating song rhythm variations in the crickets and , which occur on different islands (Maui and Hawaii). We then compare these results with a similar study of an independently evolving species pair that diverged within the same island. Finally, we annotate the transcriptome and test whether the QTL fall in functionally enriched genomic regions. We document a polygenic architecture behind the song rhythm divergence in the inter-island species pair that is remarkably similar to that previously found for an intra-island species pair in the same genus. Importantly, the QTL regions were significantly enriched for potential homologs of the genes involved in pathways that may be modulating the cricket song rhythm. These clusters of loci could constrain the spatial genomic distribution of the genetic variation underlying the cricket song variation and harbor several candidate genes that merit further study.
在各种生物地理背景下，交配行为差异可为生殖隔离和物种形成做出重大贡献。然而，交配行为差异背后的遗传结构是否与生物地理历史以及物种形成的速度和模式相关，目前仍知之甚少。在此，我们使用数量性状基因座（QTL）定位来推断蟋蟀 和 （它们分布在不同岛屿——毛伊岛和夏威夷岛）交配歌声节奏变化的数量、分布及效应大小。然后，我们将这些结果与对在同一岛屿内分化的独立进化物种对的类似研究进行比较。最后，我们注释了 的转录组，并测试QTL是否落在功能富集的基因组区域。我们证明了岛间物种对歌声节奏差异背后的多基因结构，这与之前在同一属内的岛内物种对中发现的结构非常相似。重要的是，QTL区域显著富集了可能参与调节蟋蟀歌声节奏的途径的基因的潜在同源物。这些基因座簇可能会限制蟋蟀歌声变化背后遗传变异的空间基因组分布，并包含几个值得进一步研究的候选基因。
