The genetics, evolution, and maintenance of a biological rock-paper-scissors game
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology · University of California, Berkeley · +11 more institutions
Abstract
) play a biological rock-paper-scissors game in which three differently colored male morphs utilize alternative mating strategies. We identified the genetic basis of this polymorphism, which was previously posited to arise from three alleles at one locus. Orange usurper and blue mate-guarder morphs are associated with two divergent haplotypes in the regulatory region of the sepiapterin reductase gene, but yellow sneaker morphs appear to arise through phenotypic plasticity from the same genetic background as blue morphs. Our simulations show that rock-paper-scissors dynamics can better maintain a polymorphism with a genetic system of two alleles plus plasticity than with a three-allele system. This form of…
Citation impact
- FWCI
- 74.26
- Percentile
- 100%
- References
- 98
Authors
20- ACAmmon CorlCorresponding
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley
- AGAlex Guzman
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley
- KBKe Bi
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley
- JMJuan Manual Vazquez
University of California, Berkeley
- LLLydia L. Smith
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley
Topics & keywords
- Allele
- Genetic load
- Balancing selection
- Haplotype
- Selection (genetic algorithm)
- Phenotypic plasticity
- Genetic variation
- Mating