18 September 2017
By New
Scientist staff and Press Association
Butterfly
wings have been given make-overs by scientists who tweaked a “painting gene” to
change their patterns and colours.
The
research has major implications for understanding how the so-called “rules of
life” – genetics and evolution – shape biodiversity.
The team
used the powerful new gene-editing technique CRISPR/Cas9 to study the role of
the WntA gene in creating one of nature’s greatest artworks, the
butterfly wing.
By
removing the gene from seven butterfly species, they were able to radically
alter the insect’s appearance. Wing patterns and colours changed in ways that
were unexpected.
The
research showed how WntA acted as a master gene responsible for the
trademark look of different butterflies.
Architectural
genes
Lead
scientist Arnaud Martin, from George Washington University in the US, said: “We
know why butterflies have beautiful coloured patterns. It’s usually for sexual
selection, for finding a mate, or it’s some kind of adaptation to protect
themselves from predators.
“What is
more mysterious is how do they do it. How do you make stripes and dots, how do
you make complexity, how do you fine-tune a given feature during long evolutionary
time scales?
“CRISPR
allowed us to not only describe that this gene has evolved multiple roles
within a single species, it also enabled a massive comparison between species
and showed that pattern evolution has consisted of variations on a common theme.”
More than
20,000 distinct species of butterflies live in the world today.
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