PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
Aposematic organisms rely on their conspicuous appearance to signal that they are defended and unpalatable. Such phenotypes are strongly tied to survival and reproduction. Aposematic colors and patterns are highly variable; however, the genetic, biochemical, and physiological mechanisms producing this conspicuous coloration remain largely unidentified. Here, we identify genes potentially affecting color variation in two color morphs of Ranitomeya imitator: the orange-banded Sauce and the redheaded Varadero morphs. We examine gene expression in black and orange skin patches from the Sauce morph and black and red skin patches from the Varadero morph. We identified genes differentially expressed between skin patches, including those that are involved in melanin synthesis (e.g. mlana, pmel, tyrp1), iridophore development (e.g. paics, ppat, ak1), pteridine synthesis (e.g. gch1, pax3-a, xdh), and carotenoid metabolism (e.g. dgat2, rbp1, scarb2). In addition, using weighted correlation network analysis, we identified the top 50 genes with high connectivity from the most significant network associated with gene expression differences between color morphs. Of these 50 genes, 13 were known to be related to color production (gch1, gmps, gpr143, impdh1, mc1r, pax3-a, pax7, ppat, rab27a, rlbp1, tfec, trpm1, xdh).
摘要：
拟态生物依靠其显眼的外观来表明它们受到保护且令人不快。这种表型与生存和繁殖密切相关。相反的颜色和图案是高度可变的;然而，遗传,产生这种明显着色的生化和生理机制在很大程度上仍未被识别。这里,我们确定了可能影响Ranitomeya模仿者两种颜色变体的颜色变化的基因：橙色酱和红发的Varadero变体。我们检查了Sauce变体的黑色和橙色皮肤斑块以及Varadero变体的黑色和红色皮肤斑块中的基因表达。我们确定了在皮肤色块之间差异表达的基因，包括参与黑色素合成的那些(例如，mlana,pmel,tyrp1),虹膜发育(例如，Paics,ppat,ak1),蝶啶合成(例如，gch1、recql4、xdh)，和类胡萝卜素代谢(例如，dgat2,rbp1,scarb2)。此外,使用加权基因网络分析，我们从与颜色形态之间的基因表达差异相关的最显著的网络中鉴定出具有高连通性的前50个基因.在这50个基因中，已知14种与颜色生产有关(gch1、gmps、gpr143,impdh1,mc1r,pax3-a,pax7,ppat,rab27a,rlbp1,tfec,trpm1,xdh)。
