TY - JOUR TI - A large genomic insertion containing a duplicated follistatin gene is linked to the pea aphid male wing dimorphism AU - Li, Binshuang AU - Bickel, Ryan D AU - Parker, Benjamin J AU - Saleh Ziabari, Omid AU - Liu, Fangzhou AU - Vellichirammal, Neetha Nanoth AU - Simon, Jean-Christophe AU - Stern, David L AU - Brisson, Jennifer A A2 - Levine, Mia T A2 - Wittkopp, Patricia J A2 - Moran, Nancy A2 - Andersson, Leif VL - 9 PY - 2020 DA - 2020/03/06 SP - e50608 C1 - eLife 2020;9:e50608 DO - 10.7554/eLife.50608 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.50608 AB - Wing dimorphisms have long served as models for examining the ecological and evolutionary tradeoffs associated with alternative phenotypes. Here, we investigated the genetic cause of the pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum) male wing dimorphism, wherein males exhibit one of two morphologies that differ in correlated traits that include the presence or absence of wings. We mapped this trait difference to a single genomic region and, using third generation, long-read sequencing, we identified a 120 kb insertion in the wingless allele. This insertion includes a duplicated follistatin gene, which is a strong candidate gene in the minimal mapped interval to cause the dimorphism. We found that both alleles were present prior to pea aphid biotype lineage diversification, we estimated that the insertion occurred millions of years ago, and we propose that both alleles have been maintained in the species, likely due to balancing selection. KW - Acyrthosiphon pisum KW - polymorphism KW - dispersal KW - wing dimorphism KW - genetic mapping KW - gene duplication JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -