The genetics, evolution, and maintenance of a biological rock-paper-scissors game

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Corl, Ammon; Guzman, Alex; Bi, Ke; Vazquez, Juan Manual; Smith, Lydia L.; Blaimont, Pauline; Spranger, Regina; Cooper, Robert D.; Miles, Donald; Goldberg, Amy; Gao, Jian; Xiang, Xueyan; Zhou, Yang; Li, Qiye; Zhang, Guojie; Sudmant, Peter H.; Bowie, Rauri C. K.; Mcguire, Jimmy A.; Sinervo, Barry; Nielsen, Rasmus
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Berkeley; University of California System; University of California Berkeley; University of California System; University of California Santa Cruz; University of North Carolina; University of North Carolina Chapel Hill; Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University; University System of Ohio; Ohio University; University of California System; University of California Los Angeles; David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA; Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, CAS; Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI); Zhejiang University; University of California System; University of California Berkeley; University of Copenhagen
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.adw8265
• 发表日期: 2026-01-01
• 页码: 69-74
• 关键词: ALTERNATIVE REPRODUCTIVE STRATEGIES; FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT SELECTION; SIDE-BLOTCHED LIZARDS; population-genetics; sexual selection; r package; alignment; testosterone; COLORATION; behaviors

摘要

Side-blotched lizards (Uta stansburiana) play a biological rock-paper-scissors game in which three differently colored male morphs utilize alternative mating strategies. We identified the genetic basis of this polymorphism, which was previously posited to arise from three alleles at one locus. Orange usurper and blue mate-guarder morphs are associated with two divergent haplotypes in the regulatory region of the sepiapterin reductase gene, but yellow sneaker morphs appear to arise through phenotypic plasticity from the same genetic background as blue morphs. Our simulations show that rock-paper-scissors dynamics can better maintain a polymorphism with a genetic system of two alleles plus plasticity than with a three-allele system. This form of balancing selection that combines genetic determination with phenotypic plasticity expands the possibilities for how stable polymorphisms arise in nature.