Urban, L. orcid.org/0000-0002-5445-9314, Santure, A.W., Uddstrom, L. et al. (19 more authors) (2024) The genetic basis of the kākāpō structural color polymorphism suggests balancing selection by an extinct apex predator. PLOS Biology, 22 (9). e3002755. ISSN 1544-9173
Abstract
The information contained in population genomic data can tell us much about the past ecology and evolution of species. We leveraged detailed phenotypic and genomic data of nearly all living kākāpō to understand the evolution of its feather color polymorphism. The kākāpō is an endangered and culturally significant parrot endemic to Aotearoa New Zealand, and the green and olive feather colorations are present at similar frequencies in the population. The presence of such a neatly balanced color polymorphism is remarkable because the entire population currently numbers less than 250 birds, which means it has been exposed to severe genetic drift. We dissected the color phenotype, demonstrating that the two colors differ in their light reflectance patterns due to differential feather structure. We used quantitative genomics methods to identify two genetic variants whose epistatic interaction can fully explain the species’ color phenotype. Our genomic forward simulations show that balancing selection might have been pivotal to establish the polymorphism in the ancestrally large population, and to maintain it during population declines that involved a severe bottleneck. We hypothesize that an extinct apex predator was the likely agent of balancing selection, making the color polymorphism in the kākāpō a “ghost of selection past.”
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Editors: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 Urban et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
Keywords: | Animals; Selection, Genetic; Feathers; Pigmentation; New Zealand; Parrots; Polymorphism, Genetic; Phenotype; Color; Predatory Behavior |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > School of Biosciences (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 16 Sep 2024 11:50 |
Last Modified: | 16 Sep 2024 11:50 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002755 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002755 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:217268 |