SICB 2022: Ecological and Genetic Basis of a Sexual Signal

This year at SICB, I had the great opportunity to talk about part of my work as a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Dr. Michael Logan at the University of Nevada, Reno. In collaboration with John David Curlis (University of Michigan), Christian Cox (Florida International University), W. Owen McMillan (Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute), and Carlos Arias (STRI), we have been studying the Panamanian slender anole Anolis apletophallus, which has a dewlap polymorphism: males either have a solid orange dewlap (solid morph) or a white dewlap with an orange spot (bicolor morph). Preliminary results from John David Curlis’ PhD dissertation research suggests that, in our mainland study population, the frequencies of these morphs change in conjunction with understory light levels—the solid morph is more frequently observed in brighter areas where more light reaches the understory, whereas the opposite is true for the bicolor dewlap, which is more frequently observed in darker areas of the forest. Thus, it seems possible that selection is maintaining this polymorphism following the predictions of the sensory drive hypothesis, which states that sexual signals should have characteristics that make them the most transmissible given the physical characteristics of the local habitat.

As part of an effort to understand how this trait is evolving in the wild, I set out to understand the genetic basis of this dewlap polymorphism. To do this, my collaborators and I first assembled the full slender anole genome which we then used as a reference for a pooled population sequencing (Pool-Seq) approach using half individuals with solid dewlaps and half individuals with bicolor dewlaps to identify the genomic region underlying this dewlap polymorphism.

Our genome assembly showed pretty good results (Scaffold N50 154,613,287). The Pool-Seq results presented a clear peak of differentiation between solid and bicolor morph groups that corresponded to a region on Scaffold 3. We have a promising candidate gene within this region that may underly the dewlap polymorphism, but will continue to explore these data further to understand the genetic basis of this charismatic trait.