@article{726aac6581044640bc755a086ea52aac,
title = "Genetics and evidence for balancing selection of a sex-linked colour polymorphism in a songbird",
abstract = "Colour polymorphisms play a key role in sexual selection and speciation, yet the mechanisms that generate and maintain them are not fully understood. Here, we use genomic and transcriptomic tools to identify the precise genetic architecture and evolutionary history of a sex-linked colour polymorphism in the Gouldian finch Erythrura gouldiae that is also accompanied by remarkable differences in behaviour and physiology. We find that differences in colour are associated with an ~72-kbp region of the Z chromosome in a putative regulatory region for follistatin, an antagonist of the TGF-β superfamily genes. The region is highly differentiated between morphs, unlike the rest of the genome, yet we find no evidence that an inversion is involved in maintaining the distinct haplotypes. Coalescent simulations confirm that there is elevated nucleotide diversity and an excess of intermediate frequency alleles at this locus. We conclude that this pleiotropic colour polymorphism is most probably maintained by balancing selection.",
author = "Kim, {Kang Wook} and Jackson, {Benjamin C.} and Hanyuan Zhang and Toews, {David P.L.} and Taylor, {Scott A.} and Greig, {Emma I.} and Lovette, {Irby J.} and Liu, {Mengning M.} and Angus Davison and Griffith, {Simon C.} and Kai Zeng and Terry Burke",
note = "Funding Information: We thank Brian and Deborah Charlesworth for comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. Sarah Pryke and David Harris provided blood samples of the Gouldian finches and other species of Estrildidae. Peri Bolton assisted with the collection of cheek feathers. We thank the Natural Environment Research Council Biomolecular Analysis Facility (NBAF) at the University of Edinburgh for sequencing RAD libraries (NBAF674) and NBAF at the University of Liverpool for gene expression microarray scanning. This study was supported by a University of Sheffield scholarship to K.-W.K., a joint University of Sheffield/Natural Environmental Research Council (NE/H524881/1, NE/ K500914/1) Ph.D. studentship to B.C.J., a UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills/Ministry of Education of China UK–China Scholarships for Excellence studentship to H.Z., an NSERC Banting postdoctoral fellowship to D.P.L.T., an Australian Research Council (DP130100418) grant to S.C.G. and T.B., and a Leverhulme Fellowship to T.B. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019, The Author(s).",
year = "2019",
month = dec,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1038/s41467-019-09806-6",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "10",
journal = "Nature Communications",
issn = "2041-1723",
publisher = "Nature Publishing Group",
number = "1",
}