Data from: Color phenotypes are under similar genetic control in two distantly related species of Timema stick insect

Ecology and genetics are both of general interest to evolutionary
biologists as they can influence the phenotypic and genetic response to
selection. The stick insects Timema podura and T. cristinae exhibit a
green/melanistic body color polymorphism that is subject to different
ecologically-based selective regimes in the two species. Here we describe
aspects of the genetics of this color polymorphism in T. podura, and
compare this to previous results in T. cristinae. We first show that
similar color phenotypes of the two species cluster in phenotypic space.
We then use genome-wide association mapping to show that in both species,
color is controlled by few loci, dominance relationships between color
alleles are the same, and SNPs associated with color phenotypes
co-localize to the same linkage group. Regions within this linkage group
that harbor genetic variants associated with color exhibit elevated
linkage disequilibrium relative to genome wide expectations, but more
strongly so in T. cristinae. We use these results to discuss predictions
regarding how the genetics of color could influence levels of phenotypic
and genetic variation that segregate within and between populations of T.
podura and T. cristinae, drawing parallels with other organisms.

生态学与遗传学均为进化生物学家所普遍关注的领域，因其能够影响生物对选择压力的表型及遗传响应。竹节虫Timema podura与T. cristinae存在绿色/黑色素沉着的体色多态性，且这两个物种受不同生态选择机制的调控。本文描述了T. podura体色多态性的遗传学特征，并将其与T. cristinae的既往研究结果进行比较。我们首先发现，两个物种的相似体色表型在表型空间中聚类。随后，通过全基因组关联作图（genome-wide association mapping）分析，我们发现两个物种的体色均由少数基因座控制，体色等位基因间的显性关系一致，且与体色表型相关的单核苷酸多态性（SNPs）共定位于同一连锁群。该连锁群中携带体色相关遗传变异的区域，其连锁不平衡程度高于全基因组水平的预期，但T. cristinae中的这种升高更为显著。我们基于这些结果，探讨了体色遗传学如何影响T. podura与T. cristinae种群内及种群间表型与遗传变异水平的预测，并与其他生物类群进行了类比。