Antonia Monteiro

For those interested in GRN evolution, please join us next year!

New study from our lab led by former graduate student Shen Tian on the discovery of a "plasticity gene". news.nus.edu.sg/dna-switch-but…

Here is a very detailed examination on how pigmentation in the cuticle of a butterfly wing scale changes the density and refractive index of chitin and, thus, also alters structural color. rdcu.be/eyUwS

For those interested in the evolution of phenotypic plasticity - Shen Tian et al. found that a novel bit of DNA - a Hox gene promoter in the genome of satyrid butterflies - boosts plasticity in the size of their eyespots in response to temperature. biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Short documentary movie about a micro RNA with a mega impact on lepidopteran coloration (research led by Shen Tian featured in Science): youtu.be/xsjlZWldn8s

A microRNA is the effector gene of a classic evolutionary hotspot locus | Science science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

@Anishasapkota3 Butterfly moms can make oviposition mistakes, but larvae seem to be able to adjust their food/odor preferences…

@MonteiroLab Does this imply that the early stages of butterflies are not as host-specific as we previously thought? It seems that only the female adults exhibit host specificity while laying eggs, whereas the caterpillars may be more flexible in their host preferences.

Butterfly larvae can pass on a learned odor preference to other larvae via a simple hemolymph transfusion. Short film about the work (published today) by my daughter Florence: youtu.be/qSABUSHdrjQ

@AndreiMoth Thanks Andrei!

@MonteiroLab Congratulations! This is a very important piece of evidence for hostplants driving sympatric speciation! Something that most lepidopterists believe in but have not had much empirical evidence for.

@AdrianaBriscoe I’ll let Florence know. Thanks!

@seth_donoughe Hi Seth, here we just show a parental effect (maternal, paternal, or both) but previous experiments showed a paternal effect (see Gowri et al. 2019) on odor preference inheritance.

@MonteiroLab This is a delightful explainer! Wait, did I catch that the hemolymph-transferred preference can be passed paternally? What's going on there, some kind of methylation pattern on olfactory receptor genes in the sperm?

@andrew_stoehr @ChrisWWheat how come?

Did you realize that butterflies hear, and being able to hear the presence of a competitor increases mating success? royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.109…

For those interested in satyrid butterflies, here is the annotated genome of a new species: Mycalesis mineus academic.oup.com/gbe/article/do…

I am looking for an enthusiastic student who wants to perform research on sound communication in butterflies, or on odor learning in butterfly larvae, at the organismal and/or molecular levels (e.g., brain circuitry and single-cell gene expression levels). Fellowship available!

Glad to share my last thesis chapter! We show that a 22nt micro-RNA controls melanic wing patterns in Lepidoptera biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Ever wonder about the evolutionary origin of caterpillar abdominal legs? They seem to derive from an endite GRN. news.nus.edu.sg/how-do-caterpi…

The #BoB2023 Conference website has just been released! bob2023.cz You will find information on organisers, scientific symposia, excursions, registration deadlines and fees, venue, social events... Registration will be opened in the next week! Please RT! #butterflies

Start thinking ahead to those winter days…