IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v1y2010i1d10.1038_ncomms1071.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Blending of animal colour patterns by hybridization

Author

Listed:
  • Seita Miyazawa

    (Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University)

  • Michitoshi Okamoto

    (Sapporo Salmon Museum)

  • Shigeru Kondo

    (Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University)

Abstract

Biologists have long been fascinated by the amazing diversity of animal colour patterns. Despite much interest, the underlying evolutionary and developmental mechanisms contributing to their rich variety remain largely unknown, especially the vivid and complex colour patterns seen in vertebrates. Here, we show that complex and camouflaged animal markings can be formed by the 'blending' of simple colour patterns. A mathematical model predicts that crossing between animals having inverted spot patterns (for example, 'light spots on a dark background' and 'dark spots on a light background') will necessarily result in hybrid offspring that have camouflaged labyrinthine patterns as 'blended' intermediate phenotypes. We confirmed the broad applicability of the model prediction by empirical examination of natural and artificial hybrids of salmonid fish. Our results suggest an unexplored evolutionary process by means of 'pattern blending', as one of the possible mechanisms underlying colour pattern diversity and hybrid speciation.

Suggested Citation

  • Seita Miyazawa & Michitoshi Okamoto & Shigeru Kondo, 2010. "Blending of animal colour patterns by hybridization," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 1(1), pages 1-6, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:1:y:2010:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms1071
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1071
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms1071
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms1071?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:1:y:2010:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms1071. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.