Butterfly wings have been given make-overs by scientists who tweaked a 鈥減ainting gene鈥� to change their patterns and colours.
The research has major implications for understanding how the so-called 鈥渞ules of life鈥� 鈥� genetics and evolution 鈥� shape biodiversity.
The team used the powerful new gene-editing technique CRISPR/Cas9 to study the role of the WntA gene in creating one of nature鈥檚 greatest artworks, the butterfly wing.
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By removing the gene from seven butterfly species, they were able to radically alter the insect鈥檚 appearance. Wing patterns and colours changed in ways that were unexpected.
The research showed how WntA acted as a master gene responsible for the trademark look of different butterflies.
Architectural genes
Lead scientist Arnaud Martin, from George Washington University in the US, said: 鈥淲e know why butterflies have beautiful coloured patterns. It鈥檚 usually for sexual selection, for finding a mate, or it鈥檚 some kind of adaptation to protect themselves from predators.
鈥淲hat is more mysterious is how do they do it. How do you make stripes and dots, how do you make complexity, how do you fine-tune a given feature during long evolutionary time scales?
鈥淐RISPR allowed us to not only describe that this gene has evolved multiple roles within a single species, it also enabled a massive comparison between species and showed that pattern evolution has consisted of variations on a common theme.鈥�
More than 20,000 distinct species of butterflies live in the world today.
Using CRISPR/Cas9, the scientists accurately targeted and inactivated the WntA gene in butterflies before following the effects from caterpillar to adulthood.
The findings could assist studies of many other species, including humans, said the researchers.
Martin added: 鈥淥ur research is very fundamental, and it鈥檚 about trying to understand where we come from and how. In a way, a butterfly wing starts as a blank canvas where patches of cells develop for a specific purpose, and we have that in our own anatomy. If you look at the brain, to make very complicated brains you鈥檝e got to make patterns. We don鈥檛 really know how all these patterns develop. That鈥檚 where butterflies come in.鈥�
CRISPR technology promises to revolutionise gene editing. Some researchers are experimenting with tweaking the genes of human embryos, with the ultimate goal of preventing genetic diseases.
