Molecular mechanisms of convergent color pattern evolution

Abstract

Color patterns are a fascinating organismal feature and play key roles in several fundamental ecological and evolutionary processes. They give important insights into the process of phenotypic divergence. Color patterns also provide striking examples of convergence, the independent evolution of phenotypic similarities. In the era of genome sequencing and editing it is now increasingly possible to study divergence and convergence from a molecular perspective. Recent work in cichlid fishes suggests independent genetic changes at the same genomic locus as the cause for the parallel losses and gains of stripe color patterns. Together with evidence from other animal groups, a picture emerges whereby independent mutations at genomic hotspots associate with both the divergent and convergent evolution of genetically and physiologically distinct color pattern phenotypes such as stripe patterns and countershading.