We thank the government of Costa Rica for permission to collect butterflies, BGI for sequencing, R. Hudson for assistance with ms, and reviewers for comments on the manuscript. Computational infrastructure, data storage, and resources were provided to individual laboratories by Boston University, Temple University, University of Chicago, the University of Hawaii, and the California Academy of Sciences. Additional high-performance computing was facilitated by an NSF XCEDE start-up allocation (TG-MCB120130) to J.R.G. and funding from NSF EPSCoR (0554657 PI J. Gaines) at the University of Hawaii. Funding for this project was provided by National Science Foundation grants DEB-1316037 (to M.R.K.) and DEB-1021036 (to S.P.M.). (0554657 - NSF EPSCoR at the University of Hawaii; DEB-1316037 - National Science Foundation; DEB-1021036 - National Science Foundation)
The evolutionary importance of hybridization and introgression has long been debated1. Hybrids are usually rare and unfit, but even infrequent hybridization can aid adaptation by transferring beneficial traits between species. Here we use genomic tools to investigate introgression in Heliconius, a rapidly radiating genus of neotropical butterflies widely used in studies of ecology, behaviour, mimicry and speciation2,3,4,5. We sequenced the genome of Heliconius melpomene and compared it with other taxa to investigate chromosomal evolution in Lepidoptera and gene flow among multiple Heliconius species and races. Among 12,669 predicted genes, biologically important expansions of families of chemosensory and Hox genes are particularly noteworthy. Chromosomal organization has remained broadly conserved since the Cretaceous period, when butterflies split from the Bombyx (silkmoth) lineage. Using genomic resequencing, we show hybrid exchange of genes between three co-mimics, Heliconius melpomene, Heliconius timareta and Heliconius elevatus, especially at two genomic regions that control mimicry pattern. We infer that closely related Heliconius species exchange protective colour-pattern genes promiscuously, implying that hybridization has an important role in adaptive radiation. ; We thank the governments of Colombia, Peru and Panama for permission to collect the butterflies. Sequencing was funded by contributions from consortium members. We thank M. Abanto for assistance in raising the inbred line. Individual laboratories were funded by the Leverhulme Trust (C.D.J.), the John Fell Fund and Christ Church College, Oxford (L. C. F.), The Royal Society (M.J., C.D.J.), the NSF (W.O.M., M. R. K., R. D. R., S. M., A. D. B.), the NIH (M. R. K., S. L. S., J.A.Y.), the CNRS (M.J.), the ERC (M.J., P. W. H. H.), the Banco de la Republica and COLCIENCAS (M. L.) and the BBSRC (J.M., C.D.J., M.L.B. and R.H.f.-C.). (Leverhulme Trust; John Fell Fund; Christ Church College, Oxford; Royal Society; NSF; NIH; CNRS; ERC; Banco de la ...
