Antennal RNAseq reveals odorant receptors with sex-biased expression in the common eastern firefly, Photinus pyralis.

Background: With their charismatic nighttime flashes, fireflies are a classic organismal system for studying the evolution of visual mating signals. However, across their diversity, fireflies employ a variety of mating strategies that include both chemical and visual signals. While phylogenetic evidence points to a common ancestor that relied on long-range pheromones, behavioral evidence suggests that light-dependent flashing fireflies do not use smell for mating.

Illuminating patterns of firefly abundance using citizen science data and machine learning models.

As insect populations decline in many regions, conservation biologists are increasingly tasked with identifying factors that threaten insect species and developing effective strategies for their conservation. One insect group of global conservation concern are fireflies (Coleoptera: Lampyridae). Although quantitative data on firefly populations are lacking for most species, anecdotal reports suggest that some firefly populations have declined in recent decades.

Identification of a Female-Produced Sex Attractant Pheromone of the Winter Firefly, Photinus corruscus Linnaeus (Coleoptera: Lampyridae).

Firefly flashes are well-known visual signals used by these insects to find, identify, and choose mates. However, many firefly species have lost the ability to produce light as adults. These "unlighted" species generally lack developed adult light organs, are diurnal rather than nocturnal, and are believed to use volatile pheromones acting over a distance to locate mates.

Inferring the demographic history of the North American firefly Photinus pyralis.

The firefly Photinus pyralis inhabits a wide range of latitudinal and ecological niches, with populations living from temperate to tropical habitats. Despite its broad distribution, its demographic history is unknown. In this study, we modelled and inferred different demographic scenarios for North American populations of P.

Toxicity of clothianidin to common Eastern North American fireflies.

Background: Previous research suggests that fireflies (Coleoptera: Lampyridae) are susceptible to commonly used insecticides. In the United States, there has been a rapid and widespread adoption of neonicotinoid insecticides, predominantly used as seed coatings on large-acreage crops like corn, soy, and cotton. Neonicotinoid insecticides are persistent in soil yet mobile in water, so they have potential to contaminate firefly habitats both in and adjacent to application sites.

Molecular Evolution of Phototransduction Pathway Genes in Nocturnal and Diurnal Fireflies (Coleoptera: Lampyridae).

Most organisms are dependent on sensory cues from their environment for survival and reproduction. Fireflies (Coleoptera: Lampyridae) represent an ideal system for studying sensory niche adaptation due to many species relying on bioluminescent communication; as well as a diversity of ecologies. Here; using transcriptomics; we examine the phototransduction pathway in this non-model organism; and provide some of the first evidence for positive selection in the phototransduction pathway beyond opsins in beetles.

Comparative Transcriptomics Reveals Gene Families Associated with Predatory Behavior in Fireflies.

Identifying the basis of phenotypic variation is a key objective of genetics. This work has been mostly limited to model systems with a plethora of genetic manipulation and functional characterization tools. With the development of high-throughput sequencing and new computational tools, it is possible to identify candidate genes related to phenotypic variation in non-model organisms.

Special Issue: Repetitive DNA Sequences.

Repetitive DNAs are ubiquitous in eukaryotic genomes and, in many species, comprise the bulk of the genome. Repeats include transposable elements that can self-mobilize and disperse around the genome and tandemly-repeated satellite DNAs that increase in copy number due to replication slippage and unequal crossing over. Despite their abundance, repetitive DNAs are often ignored in genomic studies due to technical challenges in identifying, assembling, and quantifying them.

Firefly genomes illuminate parallel origins of bioluminescence in beetles.

Fireflies and their luminous courtships have inspired centuries of scientific study. Today firefly luciferase is widely used in biotechnology, but the evolutionary origin of bioluminescence within beetles remains unclear. To shed light on this long-standing question, we sequenced the genomes of two firefly species that diverged over 100 million-years-ago: the North American and Japanese To compare bioluminescent origins, we also sequenced the genome of a related click beetle, the Caribbean , with bioluminescent biochemistry near-identical to fireflies, but anatomically unique light organs, suggesting the intriguing hypothesis of parallel gains of bioluminescence.

Molecular variation across populations of a widespread North American firefly, Photinus pyralis, reveals that coding changes do not underlie flash color variation or associated visual sensitivity.

Background: Genes underlying signal production and reception are expected to evolve to maximize signal detection in specific environments. Fireflies vary in their light signal color both within and between species, and thus provide an excellent system in which to study signal production and reception in the context of signaling environments. Differences in signal color have been hypothesized to be due to variation in the sequence of luciferase, the enzyme that catalyzes the light reaction.

Rates and Patterns of Mutation in Tandem Repetitive DNA in Six Independent Lineages of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

The mutational patterns of large tandem arrays of short sequence repeats remain largely unknown, despite observations of their high levels of variation in sequence and genomic abundance within and between species. Many factors can influence the dynamics of tandem repeat evolution; however, their evolution has only been examined over a limited phylogenetic sample of taxa. Here, we use publicly available whole-genome sequencing data of 85 haploid mutation accumulation lines derived from six geographically diverse Chlamydomonas reinhardtii isolates to investigate genome-wide mutation rates and patterns in tandem repeats in this species.

Variable Rates of Simple Satellite Gains across the Drosophila Phylogeny.

Simple satellites are tandemly repeating short DNA motifs that can span megabases in eukaryotic genomes. Because they can cause genomic instability through nonallelic homologous exchange, they are primarily found in the repressive heterochromatin near centromeres and telomeres where recombination is minimal, and on the Y chromosome, where they accumulate as the chromosome degenerates. Interestingly, the types and abundances of simple satellites often vary dramatically between closely related species, suggesting that they turn over rapidly.