Pattern blending enriches the diversity of animal colorations

Animals exhibit a fascinating variety of skin patterns, but mechanisms underlying this diversity remain largely unknown, particularly for complex and camouflaged colorations. A mathematical model predicts that intricate color patterns can be formed by "pattern blending" between simple moti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science advances 2020-12, Vol.6 (49)
Main Author: Miyazawa, Seita
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Developmental Biology
Evolutionary Biology
SciAdv r-articles
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Summary:Animals exhibit a fascinating variety of skin patterns, but mechanisms underlying this diversity remain largely unknown, particularly for complex and camouflaged colorations. A mathematical model predicts that intricate color patterns can be formed by "pattern blending" between simple motifs via hybridization. Here, I analyzed the skin patterns of 18,114 fish species and found strong mechanistic associations between camouflaged labyrinthine patterns and simple spot motifs, showing remarkable consistency with the pattern blending hypothesis. Genomic analyses confirmed that the coloring on multiple labyrinthine fish species has originated from pattern blending by hybridization, and phylogenetic comparative analyses have further substantiated the pattern blending hypothesis in multiple major fish lineages. These findings provide a plausible mechanistic explanation for the characteristic diversity of animal markings and suggest a novel evolutionary process of complex and camouflaged colorations by means of pattern blending.
ISSN:2375-2548
2375-2548
DOI:10.1126/sciadv.abb9107