Assistant Professor Auburn University Auburn, Alabama
Developmental plasticity allows organisms to develop alternative phenotypes in response to environmental cues. These alternative phenotypes can differ between sexes due to the underlying genetic differences in the development of males and females. Seasonal variation in butterfly wing colors is a classic example of plasticity with temperature and photoperiod frequently triggering the developmental lighter or darker colored morphs. Here, we demonstrate seasonal plasticity of both pigment and structurally-based ultraviolet coloration on dogface butterfly (Zerene cesonia) wings. We show that both temperature and photoperiod are required to generate the plastic variations in both the pigment and structural color. The plasticity is sexually dimorphic, with females showing much greater changes in pink pigmentation and males showing canes in UV pattern. Genetic evidence, including transcriptomics and CRISPR gene editing, suggests the sexually dimorphic plastic responses involve spalt, a known regulator of wing pattern development. Collectively, we are beginning to uncover the environmental cues and genetic changes involved in sexually dimorphic developmental plasticity of butterfly wing patterns.
