Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

EVOLUTIONARY GENETICS

Metamorphosis of a butterfly inversion

Nature Genetics volume 53, pages 264–266 (2021)Cite this article

Subjects

Chromosomal inversions frequently underlie distinct phenotypic variation. A new study shows that in butterflies, inversion haplotypes accumulate deleterious mutations that prevent fixation in natural populations.

Over the past decade, chromosomal inversions have emerged as major genomic variants that link DNA sequence variation to discrete phenotypes1,2,3. Inversions give rise to supergenes that ‘lock’ alleles within large chromosomal regions, thus effectively preventing the breakup and reshuffling of alleles during meiosis4. When inversions capture coadapted alleles with substantial fitness benefits, these inversion variants rapidly become more frequent in populations2,3.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: The evolution of inversion variants in Heliconius numata.

References

  1. Thompson, M. J. & Jiggins, C. D. Heredity 113, 1–8 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Wellenreuther, M. & Bernatchez, L. Trends Ecol. Evol. 33, 427–440 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Faria, R., Johannesson, K., Butlin, R. K. & Westram, A. M. Trends Ecol. Evol. 34, 239–248 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Dobzhansky, T. Genetics of the Evolutionary Process (Columbia University Press, 1970).

  5. Krimbas, C.B. & Powell, J.R. Drosophila Inversion Polymorphism (CRC Press, 1992).

  6. Lee, Y. W., Fishman, L., Kelly, J. K. & Willis, J. H. Genetics 202, 1473–1484 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Mérot, C., Llaurens, V., Normandeau, E., Bernatchez, L. & Wellenreuther, M. Nat. Commun. 11, 670 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Brelsford, A. et al. Curr. Biol. 30, 304–311.e4 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Jay, P. et al. Nat. Genet. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-020-00771-1 (2021).

  10. Edelman, N. B. et al. Science 366, 594–599 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Jay, P. et al. Curr. Biol. 28, 1839–1845.e1833 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Tuttle, E. M. et al. Curr. Biol. 26, 344–350 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Stolle, E. et al. Mol. Biol. Evol. 36, 553–561 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Thomas, J. W. et al. Genetics 179, 1455–1468 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Küpper, C. et al. Nat. Genet. 48, 79–83 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Lamichhaney, S. et al. Nat. Genet. 48, 84–88 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Seewiesen, Germany

    Clemens Küpper

Authors
  1. Clemens Küpper
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Clemens Küpper.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Küpper, C. Metamorphosis of a butterfly inversion. Nat Genet 53, 264–266 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00809-y

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00809-y

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing