Data from: Wing patterning gene redefines the mimetic history of Heliconius butterflies

The mimetic butterflies Heliconius erato and H. melpomene have undergone
parallel radiations to form a near-identical patchwork of over 20
different wing pattern races across the Neotropics. Previous molecular
phylogenetic work on these radiations has suggested that similar but
geographically disjunct color patterns arose multiple times independently
in each species. The neutral markers used in these studies, however, can
move freely across color pattern boundaries and therefore might not
represent the history of the adaptive traits as accurately as markers
linked to color pattern genes. To assess this, we compared relationships
among races within H. erato and within H. melpomene using a series of
unlinked genes, genes linked to color pattern loci, and optix - a gene
recently shown to control red color pattern variation. We found that while
unlinked genes partition populations by geographic region, optix had a
different history, structuring lineages by red color patterns and
supporting a single origin of red-rayed patterns within each species.
Genes closely linked (80-250 KB) to optix exhibited only weak associations
with color pattern. This study empirically demonstrates the necessity of
examining phenotype-determining genomic regions to understand the history
of adaptive change in rapidly radiating lineages. With these refined
relationships, we resolve a long-standing debate about the origins of the
races within each species, supporting the hypothesis that the red-rayed
Amazonian pattern evolved recently and expanded, causing disjunctions of
more ancestral patterns.