image: A Faroese mountain hare, Lepus timidus. view more
Credit: Image courtesy of Harald Bjørgvin (photographer).
Using whole-genome sequencing and genotyping, researchers found that the pigmentation gene Agouti, which is associated with winter coat color variation in snowshoe hares, is also responsible for the coats of mountain hares changing from brown during summer to gray or white during winter; further, the winter gray variant introgressed into the mountain hare through hybridization with a non-color-changing species of hare, suggesting that introgression is key to variations of winter coat colors, according to the authors.
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Article #19-10471: "Introgression drives repeated evolution of winter coat color polymorphism in hares," by Iwona Giska et al.
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Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences