Exome capture design for the strawberry poison frog, Oophaga pumilio, in Bocas del Toro

The aposematic strawberry poison frog, Oophaga pumilio, is an iconic model
system for studying the evolution and maintenance of color variation.
Through most of its range, this frog is red with blue limbs. However,
frogs from the Bocas del Toro Province, Panama, show striking variance in
color and pattern, both sympatrically and allopatrically. This observation
contradicts standard models of the evolution of aposematism and has led to
substantial speculation about its evolutionary and molecular causes. Since
the enigma of O. pumiliophenotypic variation is partly unresolved because
of its large, ∼ 6.7 Gb genome, we here sequence exomes from 347
individuals from ten populations and map a number of genetic factors
responsible for the color and pattern variation. The kitgene is the
primary candidate underlying the blue-red polymorphism in Dolphin Bay,
where an increase in melanosomes is correlated with blue coloration.
Additionally, thettc39bgene, a known enhancer of yellow-to-red carotenoid
conversion in birds, is the primary factor behind the yellow-red
polymorphism in the Bastimentos West area. The causal genetic regions show
evidence of selective sweeps acting locally to spread the rare phenotype.
Our analyses suggest an evolutionary model in which selection is driving
the formation of new morphs in a dynamic system resulting from a trade-off
between predation avoidance, intraspecific competition, and mate choice.