文章基本信息

标题：Darwinian natural selection for orange bioluminescent color in a Jamaican click beetle
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作者：Uwe Stolz ; Sebastian Velez ; Keith V. Wood 等
期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：2003
卷号：100
期号：25
页码：14955-14959
DOI：10.1073/pnas.2432563100
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：The Jamaican click beetle Pyrophorus plagiophthalamus (Coleoptera: Elateridae) is unique among all bioluminescent organisms in displaying a striking light color polymorphism [Biggley, W. H., Lloyd, J. E. & Seliger, H. H. (1967) J. Gen. Physiol. 50, 1681-1692]. Beetles on the island vary in the color of their ventral light organs from yellow-green to orange and their dorsal organs from green to yellow-green. The genetic basis for the color variation involves specific amino acid substitutions in the enzyme luciferase. Here, we show that dorsal and ventral light color in P. plagiophthalamus are under separate genetic control, we resolve the allelic basis for color variation, and, through analyses of luciferase sequence variation, we demonstrate that natural selection has produced a long-term adaptive trend for longer wavelength (more orange) ventral light on Jamaica. Our results constitute a novel example connecting the selective fixation of specific nucleotides in nature to their precisely determined phenotypic effects. We also present evidence suggesting that a recently derived ventral orange luciferase allele on the island has deterministically increased in frequency. Thus, the current luciferase polymorphism for P. plagiophthalamus appears to be mirroring the long-term anagenic trend on Jamaica, revealing a possible ongoing adaptive color transition in progress.