bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/154500; this version posted June 23, 2017. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. wingless is a positive regulator of eyespot color patterns in Bicyclus anynana butterflies 1,* 1 2 1 1,3,* Nesibe Özsu , Qian Yi Chan , Bin Chen , Mainak Das Gupta , and Antónia Monteiro 1 Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117543; 2 Institute of Entomology and Molecular Biology, Chongqing Normal University, Shapingba, 400047 Chongqing, China 3 Yale-NUS College, Singapore 138614 * Corresponding authors: Nesibe Özsu5or Antónia Monteiro Department of Biological Sciences, 14 Science Drive 4 Singapore, 117543 Tel: +65 97551591
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[email protected] 1 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/154500; this version posted June 23, 2017. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. 1 Summary 2 Eyespot patterns of nymphalid butterflies are an example of a novel trait yet, the 3 developmental origin of eyespots is still not well understood. Several genes have been 4 associated with eyespot development but few have been tested for function. One of these 5 genes is the signaling ligand, wingless, which is expressed in the eyespot centers during early 6 pupation and may function in eyespot signaling and color ring differentiation. Here we 7 tested the function of wingless in wing and eyespot development by down-regulating it in 8 transgenic Bicyclus anynana butterflies via RNAi driven by an inducible heat-shock promoter.