Evolutionary and ecological processes influencing chemical defense variation in an aposematic and mimetic Heliconius butterfly
(2021) In PeerJ 9.- Abstract
Chemical defences against predators underlie the evolution of aposematic coloration and mimicry, which are classic examples of adaptive evolution. Surprisingly little is known about the roles of ecological and evolutionary processes maintaining defence variation, and how they may feedback to shape the evolutionary dynamics of species. Cyanogenic Heliconius butterflies exhibit diverse warning color patterns and mimicry, thus providing a useful framework for investigating these questions. We studied intraspecific variation in de novo biosynthesized cyanogenic toxicity and its potential ecological and evolutionary sources in wild populations of Heliconius erato along environmental gradients, in common-garden broods and with feeding... (More)
Chemical defences against predators underlie the evolution of aposematic coloration and mimicry, which are classic examples of adaptive evolution. Surprisingly little is known about the roles of ecological and evolutionary processes maintaining defence variation, and how they may feedback to shape the evolutionary dynamics of species. Cyanogenic Heliconius butterflies exhibit diverse warning color patterns and mimicry, thus providing a useful framework for investigating these questions. We studied intraspecific variation in de novo biosynthesized cyanogenic toxicity and its potential ecological and evolutionary sources in wild populations of Heliconius erato along environmental gradients, in common-garden broods and with feeding treatments. Our results demonstrate substantial intraspecific variation, including detectable variation among broods reared in a common garden. The latter estimate suggests considerable evolutionary potential in this trait, although predicting the response to selection is likely complicated due to the observed skewed distribution of toxicity values and the signatures of maternal contributions to the inheritance of toxicity. Larval diet contributed little to toxicity variation. Furthermore, toxicity profiles were similar along steep rainfall and altitudinal gradients, providing little evidence for these factors explaining variation in biosynthesized toxicity in natural populations. In contrast, there were striking differences in the chemical profiles of H. erato from geographically distant populations, implying potential local adaptation in the acquisition mechanisms and levels of defensive compounds. The results highlight the extensive variation and potential for adaptive evolution in defense traits for aposematic and mimetic species, which may contribute to the high diversity often found in these systems.
(Less)
- author
- Mattila, Anniina L.K. ; Jiggins, Chris D. ; Opedal, Øystein H. LU ; Montejo-Kovacevich, Gabriela ; De Castro, Érika C.Pinheiro ; McMillan, W. Owen ; Bacquet, Caroline and Saastamoinen, Marjo
- organization
- publishing date
- 2021-06
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Aposematism, Chemical defenses, Cyanogenic glucosides, Environmental gradients, Evolvability, Heliconius, Maternal effects, Mimicry, Passiflora
- in
- PeerJ
- volume
- 9
- article number
- e11523
- publisher
- PeerJ
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85108318570
- pmid:34178447
- ISSN
- 2167-8359
- DOI
- 10.7717/peerj.11523
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Funding Information: Financial support was provided by the Academy of Finland (Grant no. 286814 to Anniina LK Mattila), ERC (SpeciationGenetics 339873 to Chris D Jiggins), NERC Doctoral Training Partnership (NE/L002507/1 to Gabriela Montejo-Kovacevich), and Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID, grant number 2018SPE0000400194 to Caroline Bacquet). Open access was funded by the Helsinki University Library. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Publisher Copyright: © Copyright 2021 Mattila et al. Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
- id
- c3987a4a-c93e-4ff7-8bdd-898633132b66
- date added to LUP
- 2021-07-02 19:02:10
- date last changed
- 2024-06-15 13:11:18
@article{c3987a4a-c93e-4ff7-8bdd-898633132b66,
abstract = {{<p>Chemical defences against predators underlie the evolution of aposematic coloration and mimicry, which are classic examples of adaptive evolution. Surprisingly little is known about the roles of ecological and evolutionary processes maintaining defence variation, and how they may feedback to shape the evolutionary dynamics of species. Cyanogenic Heliconius butterflies exhibit diverse warning color patterns and mimicry, thus providing a useful framework for investigating these questions. We studied intraspecific variation in de novo biosynthesized cyanogenic toxicity and its potential ecological and evolutionary sources in wild populations of Heliconius erato along environmental gradients, in common-garden broods and with feeding treatments. Our results demonstrate substantial intraspecific variation, including detectable variation among broods reared in a common garden. The latter estimate suggests considerable evolutionary potential in this trait, although predicting the response to selection is likely complicated due to the observed skewed distribution of toxicity values and the signatures of maternal contributions to the inheritance of toxicity. Larval diet contributed little to toxicity variation. Furthermore, toxicity profiles were similar along steep rainfall and altitudinal gradients, providing little evidence for these factors explaining variation in biosynthesized toxicity in natural populations. In contrast, there were striking differences in the chemical profiles of H. erato from geographically distant populations, implying potential local adaptation in the acquisition mechanisms and levels of defensive compounds. The results highlight the extensive variation and potential for adaptive evolution in defense traits for aposematic and mimetic species, which may contribute to the high diversity often found in these systems. </p>}},
author = {{Mattila, Anniina L.K. and Jiggins, Chris D. and Opedal, Øystein H. and Montejo-Kovacevich, Gabriela and De Castro, Érika C.Pinheiro and McMillan, W. Owen and Bacquet, Caroline and Saastamoinen, Marjo}},
issn = {{2167-8359}},
keywords = {{Aposematism; Chemical defenses; Cyanogenic glucosides; Environmental gradients; Evolvability; Heliconius; Maternal effects; Mimicry; Passiflora}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{PeerJ}},
series = {{PeerJ}},
title = {{Evolutionary and ecological processes influencing chemical defense variation in an aposematic and mimetic Heliconius butterfly}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.11523}},
doi = {{10.7717/peerj.11523}},
volume = {{9}},
year = {{2021}},
}