Solves the mystery of how butterfly wings get their color patterns | News today |

(Reference Image) Several species of “mutant” Heliconius butterflies have made it possible to detect the dynamics behind the patterns on their wings.

Photo: Fredy Montero

The colors of butterflies are one of their most recognizable features. However, until now it has remained a mystery to biologists how the colorful patterns that can be seen on their wings, which can sometimes change color according to the seasons, were created. Three studies, to be published in the coming weeks, show that this dynamic would be driven by a regulatory mechanism that had not previously been examined: ribonucleic acid (RNA) in small fragments.

Previously, the scientific community believed that the color dynamics were attributed to variation in the pattern of a protein-coding gene called “cortex”. However, new research has shown that it does another gene that overlaps with RNA fragments in genetic sequences.

We invite you to read: An anomaly that would affect the southern lights of Antarctica.

One of the investigations carried out in Duke University (United States of America)started after a group of researchers learned that Ebay – an e-commerce platform – was selling Heliconius butterflies completely white. In genetic sequencing of several of these individuals, they discovered a deletion(s) in the “bark” gene region. When they analyzed this region, they realized that the missing DNA contained a sequence encoding an “lncRNA” (a genetic regulator that does not produce proteins), which had not been studied before.

With this information, they performed genetic manipulations with painted butterflies (Vanessa cardui) – which have colorful wings and can be easily raised in the lab – deactivate only the lncRNA gene that affects protein coding in cells. By removing the latter, butterflies They were born with white wingswhile those in which the cortex gene was disabled showed no changes.

Later, at a conference in the middle of their studies, a group of researchers learned that a group from Cornell University was studying the wing color patterns of the buckeye butterfly (Junonia coenia) and was also targeting the same lncRNA. Since then, the two teams decided to coordinate their research efforts.

At the same time, through publications on social networks, they learned that evolutionary biologists Shen Tian and Antónia Monteiro from the National University of Singapore They investigated the dynamics of microRNAs, short RNA sequences known to regulate gene activity, in butterflies. In particular, their study focused on the brown-eyed butterfly (Bicyclus anynana), a well-studied tropical species, in which they found that a microRNA is responsible for the black pattern on the wings. After learning about the lncRNAs identified by the other two groups, Monteiro and Tian concluded that longer RNAs are cleaved into these microRNAs.

We invite you to read: Record high temperatures may continue until June.

In this way, three studies concluded that these microRNAs, derived from lncRNAs, are responsible for defining some patterns in butterflies (especially the colors red, yellow, white and black) and possibly in other animals and plants. “There’s a lot going on in this small part of the genome,” reported Violaine Llaurens, an evolutionary biologist at the Colegio de Francia, in the journal Science, which warns that other regulatory elements are likely involved in the construction of butterfly wings. In this sense, scientists hypothesize that these RNAs determine the wing patterns of most of the 180,000 species of moths and butterflies.

According to a statement to the same portal by Yaowu Yuan, an evolutionary biologist from the University of Connecticut, “It is quite certain that many more similar studies will come soonthe field of RNA is expanding.”

👩‍🔬📄 Want to know the latest science news? We invite you to see them Spectator. 🧪🧬