The Evolution of Butterfly Wing Coloration & Patterning

L: normal 'pink lady' butterfly wing.
R: CRISPR-altered mutant wing.
(Mazo-Vargas et al. 2017)

Dr. Anyi Mazo-Vargas and colleagues (including GW's own Dr. Arnaud Martin) found a single gene that alters a butterfly's wing pattern using a gene editing method called CRISPR/Cas9. The team detailed their finding in a recent paper in PNAS. The gene, WntA, was found to be involved in stripe patterning in 3 Vanessa species, and in creating boundaries for melanin and light-color patterning in two species of Heliconius. WntA paired with optix, another gene responsible for the development and evolution butterfly color and iridescence found by Zhang et al. 2017, are chief contributors for the "painting" of butterfly's wings.  As Arnaud Martin explained to Nature, the genes work together like a coloring book; WntA creates the lines, and optix fills them in with color.

For the full Anyi Mazo-Vargas et al. 2017 PNAS article, click here. For the Zhang et al. 2017 paper, click here.

- Angie