Hi Aaron, sure, will pm you

This is the final piece of my PhD thesis. A big thanks to Bonnie, @tirthabanerjee.bsky.social, Suriya, and @monteirolab.bsky.social for their support! 9/9

We found a novel promoter of a Hox gene promoting adaptive temperature sensitivities across a large clade of butterflies. This highlights the essential roles of novel cis-regulatory elements in fueling adaptations on a macroevolutionary scale. 8/9

In B. anynana, disrupting this novel promoter reduced the butterfly’s ability to adjust eyespot size with temperature, showing that this genetic element contributed to the evolution of temperature-mediated eyespot size plasticity in satyrid butterflies. 7/9

How is Antp activated in eyespots of a specific clade of butterflies? We found a genetic switch, a promoter, that evolved specifically in satyrid butterflies, and it activates Antp expression specifically in eyespot central cells. 6/9

Disrupting Antp in two satyrid butterflies reduced eyespot size, especially when the insects were raised at warmer temperatures, confirming Antp’s role in boosting the levels of eyespot size plasticity. 5/9

From the tissue-specific transcriptomic data, we pinpointed a Hox gene Antennapedia (Antp), showing higher eyespot expression levels at warmer temperatures. Notbly, among all butterflies with eyespots, Antp is only activated in the eyespots of satyrid butterflies. 4/9

How did satyrid butterflies evolve such temperature sensativities? In a model satyrid Bicyclus anynana, we profiled gene expression from both eyespot and non-eyespot developing wing tissues across two temperatures, using laser-microdissection. 3/9

Many tropical satyrid butterflies look strikingly different in different seasons. In the hot wet season, these butterflies develop large eyespots on their wings. In the cold dry season, these eyespots are small. This change enhances their survival in each season. 2/9