How butterfly wings got their pattern

Gene regulatory elements play a crucial role in the pattern formation of butterfly wings The development of morphological patterns and structures in organisms is the result of transcription factors and epigenetic regulation in different cells and tissues. Transcription factors, which are proteins th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2022-10, Vol.378 (6617), p.249-250
Main Authors: Espeland, Marianne, Podsiadlowski, Lars
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Butterflies & moths
Deoxyribonucleic acid
DNA
Epigenetics
Gene expression
Gene regulation
Pattern formation
Phenotypes
Regulatory sequences
Transcription factors
Wings
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Summary:Gene regulatory elements play a crucial role in the pattern formation of butterfly wings The development of morphological patterns and structures in organisms is the result of transcription factors and epigenetic regulation in different cells and tissues. Transcription factors, which are proteins that bind to DNA at sites called cis-regulatory elements (CREs), can turn gene expression on or off. The fine-tuned regulation of where, when, and to what extent a gene is expressed is also maintained by epigenetic processes, such as by modulating the accessibility of CREs to transcription factors. On an evolutionary time scale, variation in CREs may modify the expression of a neighboring gene and therefore the phenotype of the organism. On page 304 of this issue, Mazo-Vargas et al. ( 1 ) analyze the evolution of regulatory elements of the gene WntA , which is involved in wing pattern formation in Nymphalidae butterflies. Their results illustrate how gene regulatory elements can be conserved over a long time but sometimes quickly undergo adaptive changes.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.ade5689