Document Type
Article
Date of Original Version
9-5-2014
Department
Biological Sciences
Abstract
Previous studies have reported that chromosome synteny in Lepidoptera has been well conserved, yet the number of haploid chromosomes varies widely from 5 to 223. Here we report the genome (393Mb) of the Glanville fritillary butterfly (Melitaea cinxia; Nymphalidae), a widely recognized model species in metapopulation biology and eco-evolutionary research, which has the putative ancestral karyotype of n¼31. Using a phylogenetic analyses of Nymphalidae and of other Lepidoptera, combined with orthologue-level comparisons of chromosomes, we conclude that the ancestral lepidopteran karyotype has been n¼31 for at least 140My. We show that fusion chromosomes have retained the ancestral chromosome segments and very few rearrangements have occurred across the fusion sites. The same, shortest ancestral chromosomes have independently participated in fusion events in species with smaller karyotypes. The short chromosomes have higher rearrangement rate than long ones. These characteristics highlight distinctive features of the evolutionary dynamics of butterflies and moths.
Citation/Publisher Attribution
Ahola, Virpi et al. "The Glanville fritillary genome retains an ancient karyotype and reveals selective chromosomal fusions in Lepidoptera." Nature Communications. September 5, 2014.
Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms5737
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