ArticleBMC evolutionary biology2012
Phenotypic plasticity in opsin expression in a butterfly compound eye complements sex role reversal.
Article in BMC evolutionary biology, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers.
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Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 56 citations in OpenAlex.
- Opsin gene expression plasticity and spectral sensitivity in male damselflies could mediate female colour morph detection.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Trichromacy is insufficient for mate detection in a mimetic butterfly.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Tympanal ears mediate male-male competition, courtship and mating success inRoyal Society open science · 2024Article
- Multiple axes of visual system diversity in Ithomiini, an ecologically diverse tribe of mimetic butterflies.The Journal of experimental biology · 2023Article
- The genome and sex-dependent responses to temperature in the common yellow butterfly, Eurema hecabe.BMC biology · 2023Article
- Simple and complex, sexually dimorphic retinal mosaic of fritillary butterflies.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Developmental plasticity in multimodal signals: light environment produces novel signalling phenotypes in a butterfly.Biology letters · 2022Article
- Evolutionary history limits species' ability to match colour sensitivity to available habitat light.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Five Visual and Olfactory Target Genes for RNAi inFrontiers in genetics · 2022Article
- Stage- and sex-specific transcriptome analyses reveal distinctive sensory gene expression patterns in a butterfly.BMC genomics · 2021Article
- Light environment drives evolution of color vision genes in butterflies and moths.Communications biology · 2021Article
- Testing sensory drive speciation in cichlid fish: Linking light conditions to opsin expression, opsin genotype and female mate preference.Journal of evolutionary biology · 2020Article
- Early-exposure to new sex pheromone blends alters mate preference in female butterflies and in their offspring.Nature communications · 2020Article
- Diurnal variation in opsin expression and common housekeeping genes necessitates comprehensive normalization methods for quantitative real-time PCR analyses.Molecular ecology resources · 2019Article
- Seasonal plasticity in anti-predatory strategies: Matching of color and color preference for effective crypsis.Evolution letters · 2019Article
- Article
- Sex Differences in 20-Hydroxyecdysone Hormone Levels Control Sexual Dimorphism in Bicyclus anynana Wing Patterns.Molecular biology and evolution · 2018Article
- Retinal perception and ecological significance of color vision in insects.Current opinion in insect science · 2017Review
- Wound healing, calcium signaling, and other novel pathways are associated with the formation of butterfly eyespots.BMC genomics · 2017Article
- Males Become Choosier in Response to Manipulations of Female Wing Ornaments in Dry Season Bicyclus anynana Butterflies.Journal of insect science (Online) · 2017Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAnimals often display phenotypic plasticity in morphologies and behaviors that result in distinct adaptations to fluctuating seasonal environments. The butterfly Bicyclus anynana has two seasonal forms, wet and dry, that vary in wing ornament brightness and in the identity of the sex that performs the most courting and choosing. Rearing temperature is the cue for producing these alternative seasonal forms. We hypothesized that, barring any developmental constraints, vision should be enhanced in the choosy individuals but diminished in the non-choosy individuals due to physiological costs. As a proxy of visual performance we measured eye size, facet lens size, and sensitivity to light, e.g., the expression levels of all opsins, in males and females of both seasonal forms.
resultsWe found that B. anynana eyes displayed significant sexual dimorphism and phenotypic plasticity for both morphology and opsin expression levels, but not all results conformed to our prediction. Males had larger eyes than females across rearing temperatures, and increases in temperature produced larger eyes in both sexes, mostly via increases in facet number. Ommatidia were larger in the choosy dry season (DS) males and transcript levels for all three opsins were significantly lower in the less choosy DS females.
conclusionsOpsin level plasticity in females, and ommatidia size plasticity in males supported our visual plasticity hypothesis but males appear to maintain high visual function across both seasons. We discuss our results in the context of distinct sexual and natural selection pressures that may be facing each sex in the wild in each season.
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