ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2016
A neo-W chromosome in a tropical butterfly links colour pattern, male-killing, and speciation.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers.
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29 citing papers in PubMed, 57 citations in OpenAlex.
- Chromosomal rearrangements: tempo and mode of karyotype evolution in Scarabaeoidea.Journal of evolutionary biology · 2026Article
- A W chromosome-derived feminizing piRNA in pyralid moths demonstrates convergent evolution for primary sex determination signals in Lepidoptera.BMC biology · 2025Article
- Bud structure, time of budbreak and crown architecture in woody species from Cerrado and seasonal forests of Brazil.Journal of plant research · 2025Article
- Incomplete recombination suppression fuels extensive haplotype diversity in a butterfly colour pattern supergene.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- Sex-biased gene content is associated with sex chromosome turnover in Danaini butterflies.Molecular ecology · 2024Article
- Article
- Rewinding the Ratchet: Rare Recombination Locally Rescues Neo-W Degeneration and Generates Plateaus of Sex-Chromosome Divergence.Molecular biology and evolution · 2024Article
- Genomic evidence reveals three W-autosome fusions in Heliconius butterflies.PLoS genetics · 2024Article
- Chromosome-Level Assemblies of the Pieris mannii Butterfly Genome Suggest Z-Origin and Rapid Evolution of the W Chromosome.Genome biology and evolution · 2023Article
- Cell-based analysis reveals that sex-determining gene signals inPNAS nexus · 2023Article
- Morphological changes in female reproductive organs in the African monarch butterfly, host to a male-killingPeerJ · 2023Article
- A novel neo-sex chromosome in Sylvietta brachyura (Macrosphenidae) adds to the extraordinary avian sex chromosome diversity among Sylvioidea songbirds.Journal of evolutionary biology · 2022Article
- Genome assembly of Danaus chrysippus and comparison with the Monarch Danaus plexippus.G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2022Article
- Support for faster and more adaptive Z chromosome evolution in two divergent lepidopteran lineagesEvolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2022Article
- Male-killing mechanisms vary betweenFrontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
- Article
- Hybrid effects in field populations of the African monarch butterfly,Biological journal of the Linnean Society. Linnean Society of London · 2021Article
- Article
- The evolution and genetics of sexually dimorphic 'dual' mimicry in the butterflyProceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Evolution of multiple sex-chromosomes associated with dynamic genome reshuffling in Leptidea wood-white butterflies.Heredity · 2020Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 7 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Sexually antagonistic selection can drive both the evolution of sex chromosomes and speciation itself. The tropical butterfly the African Queen, Danaus chrysippus, shows two such sexually antagonistic phenotypes, the first being sex-linked colour pattern, the second, susceptibility to a male-killing, maternally inherited mollicute, Spiroplasma ixodeti, which causes approximately 100% mortality in male eggs and first instar larvae. Importantly, this mortality is not affected by the infection status of the male parent and the horizontal transmission of Spiroplasma is unknown. In East Africa, male-killing of the Queen is prevalent in a narrow hybrid zone centred on Nairobi. This hybrid zone separates otherwise allopatric subspecies with different colour patterns. Here we show that a neo-W chromosome, a fusion between the W (female) chromosome and an autosome that controls both colour pattern and male-killing, links the two phenotypes thereby driving speciation across the hybrid zone. Studies of the population genetics of the neo-W around Nairobi show that the interaction between colour pattern and male-killer susceptibility restricts gene flow between two subspecies of D. chrysippus Our results demonstrate how a complex interplay between sex, colour pattern, male-killing, and a neo-W chromosome, has set up a genetic 'sink' that keeps the two subspecies apart. The association between the neo-W and male-killing thus provides a 'smoking gun' for an ongoing speciation process.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.