Data from the paper: The genetics, evolution, and maintenance of a biological rock-paper-scissors game

Side-blotched lizards (Uta stansburiana) play a biological
rock-paper-scissors game in which three differently colored male morphs
utilize alternative mating strategies. This polymorphsim was previously
posited to arise from three alleles at one locus. We identified the
genetic basis of this polymorphism, using genome-wide association studies.
Orange usurper and blue mate-guarder morphs were associated with two
divergent haplotypes in the regulatory region of the sepiapterin reductase
gene, but yellow sneaker morphs appear to arise via phenotypic plasticity
from the same genetic background as blue-morphs. We aligned genome
assemblies for an orange and blue-morph to determine that the associated
genetic region was not in a chromosomal inversion. We studied the genetic
diversity of the morph-associated region and found that it had elevated
nucleotide diversity, consistent with balancing selection. We used RNA-seq
data to show that there were difference in gene expression among the
morphs. We tested the predictions of the two and three-allele models
against data from field surveys of the polymorphism and found that the
two-allele model provided a better fit to the field data. We updated the
models of the maintenance of the polymorphism to fit our new genetic
understanding of the system. We found that a variety of different models
maintained the polymorphism, some of which gave rise to frequency-cycles.
We also conducted a game theoretical analysis of the conditions that lead
to a stable polymorphism. In addition, we added genetic drift to our
population genetic models to study how well they are able to maintain the
polymorphism. Our simulations showed 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 balancing
selection that combines genetic determination with phenotypic plasticity
expands the possibilities for how stable polymorphisms arise in nature.