Evolution of flower color pattern through selection on regulatory small RNAs

Desmond Bradley; Ping Xu; Irina Ioana Mohorianu; Annabel Whibley; David Field; Hugo Tavares; Matthew Couchman; Lucy Copsey; Rosemary Carpenter; Miaomiao Li; Qun Li; Yongbiao Xue; Tamas Dalmay; Enrico Coen

doi:10.1126/science.aao3526

Evolution of flower color pattern through selection on regulatory small RNAs

Desmond Bradley, Ping Xu, Irina Ioana Mohorianu, Annabel Whibley, David Field, Hugo Tavares, Matthew Couchman, Lucy Copsey, Rosemary Carpenter, Miaomiao Li, Qun Li, Yongbiao Xue, Tamas Dalmay, Enrico Coen

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

40 Scopus citations

Abstract

Small RNAs (sRNAs) regulate genes in plants and animals. Here, we show that population-wide differences in color patterns in snapdragon flowers are caused by an inverted duplication that generates sRNAs. The complexity and size of the transcripts indicate that the duplication represents an intermediate on the pathway to microRNA evolution. The sRNAs repress a pigment biosynthesis gene, creating a yellow highlight at the site of pollinator entry. The inverted duplication exhibits steep clines in allele frequency in a natural hybrid zone, showing that the allele is under selection. Thus, regulatory interactions of evolutionarily recent sRNAs can be acted upon by selection and contribute to the evolution of phenotypic diversity.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	925-928
Number of pages	4
Journal	Science
Volume	358
Issue number	6365
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aao3526
State	Published - Nov 17 2017
Externally published	Yes

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title = "Evolution of flower color pattern through selection on regulatory small RNAs",

abstract = "Small RNAs (sRNAs) regulate genes in plants and animals. Here, we show that population-wide differences in color patterns in snapdragon flowers are caused by an inverted duplication that generates sRNAs. The complexity and size of the transcripts indicate that the duplication represents an intermediate on the pathway to microRNA evolution. The sRNAs repress a pigment biosynthesis gene, creating a yellow highlight at the site of pollinator entry. The inverted duplication exhibits steep clines in allele frequency in a natural hybrid zone, showing that the allele is under selection. Thus, regulatory interactions of evolutionarily recent sRNAs can be acted upon by selection and contribute to the evolution of phenotypic diversity.",

author = "Desmond Bradley and Ping Xu and Mohorianu, {Irina Ioana} and Annabel Whibley and David Field and Hugo Tavares and Matthew Couchman and Lucy Copsey and Rosemary Carpenter and Miaomiao Li and Qun Li and Yongbiao Xue and Tamas Dalmay and Enrico Coen",

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T1 - Evolution of flower color pattern through selection on regulatory small RNAs

AU - Bradley, Desmond

AU - Xu, Ping

AU - Mohorianu, Irina Ioana

AU - Whibley, Annabel

AU - Field, David

AU - Tavares, Hugo

AU - Couchman, Matthew

AU - Copsey, Lucy

AU - Carpenter, Rosemary

AU - Li, Miaomiao

AU - Li, Qun

AU - Xue, Yongbiao

AU - Dalmay, Tamas

AU - Coen, Enrico

PY - 2017/11/17

Y1 - 2017/11/17

N2 - Small RNAs (sRNAs) regulate genes in plants and animals. Here, we show that population-wide differences in color patterns in snapdragon flowers are caused by an inverted duplication that generates sRNAs. The complexity and size of the transcripts indicate that the duplication represents an intermediate on the pathway to microRNA evolution. The sRNAs repress a pigment biosynthesis gene, creating a yellow highlight at the site of pollinator entry. The inverted duplication exhibits steep clines in allele frequency in a natural hybrid zone, showing that the allele is under selection. Thus, regulatory interactions of evolutionarily recent sRNAs can be acted upon by selection and contribute to the evolution of phenotypic diversity.

AB - Small RNAs (sRNAs) regulate genes in plants and animals. Here, we show that population-wide differences in color patterns in snapdragon flowers are caused by an inverted duplication that generates sRNAs. The complexity and size of the transcripts indicate that the duplication represents an intermediate on the pathway to microRNA evolution. The sRNAs repress a pigment biosynthesis gene, creating a yellow highlight at the site of pollinator entry. The inverted duplication exhibits steep clines in allele frequency in a natural hybrid zone, showing that the allele is under selection. Thus, regulatory interactions of evolutionarily recent sRNAs can be acted upon by selection and contribute to the evolution of phenotypic diversity.

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DO - 10.1126/science.aao3526

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SN - 0036-8075

VL - 358

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JO - Science

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Evolution of flower color pattern through selection on regulatory small RNAs

Abstract

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