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Science 19 March 2004:
Vol. 303. no. 5665, pp. 1870 - 1873
DOI: 10.1126/science.1093834
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Reports

Conserved Genetic Basis of a Quantitative Plumage Trait Involved in Mate Choice

Nicholas I. Mundy,1* Nichola S. Badcock,2 Tom Hart,2 Kim Scribner,3 Kirstin Janssen,4 Nicola J. Nadeau1

A key question in evolutionary genetics is whether shared genetic mechanisms underlie the independent evolution of similar phenotypes across phylogenetically divergent lineages. Here we show that in two classic examples of melanic plumage polymorphisms in birds, lesser snow geese (Anser c. caerulescens) and arctic skuas (Stercorarius parasiticus), melanism is perfectly associated with variation in the melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R) gene. In both species, the degree of melanism correlates with the number of copies of variant MC1R alleles. Phylogenetic reconstructions of variant MC1R alleles in geese and skuas show that melanism is a derived trait that evolved in the Pleistocene.

1 Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK.
2 Department of Biological Anthropology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6QS, UK.
3 Department of Fisheries and Wildlife and Department of Zoology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA.
4 Department of Molecular Biotechnology, University of Tromsø, N-9037 Tromsø, Norway.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: nim21{at}cam.ac.uk

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