Scholars@Duke
Anyi Mazo-Vargas

Anyi Mazo-Vargas

Assistant Professor of Biology
Biology
anyi.mv@duke.edu
137 Bio Science Dr, Durham, NC 27708
124 Science Drive - FFSC 3313, Durham, NC 27708

Selected Publications

The ivory lncRNA regulates seasonal color patterns in buckeye butterflies.

Journal Article Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · October 2024 Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are transcribed elements increasingly recognized for their roles in regulating gene expression. Thus far, however, we have little understanding of how lncRNAs contribute to evolution and adaptation. Here, we show that a conser ... Full text Cite

A long noncoding RNA at the cortex locus controls adaptive coloration in butterflies.

Journal Article Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · September 2024 Evolutionary variation in the wing pigmentation of butterflies and moths offers striking examples of adaptation by crypsis and mimicry. The cortex locus has been independently mapped as the locus controlling color polymorphisms in 15 lepidopteran sp ... Full text Cite

Cis-regulatory modes of Ultrabithorax inactivation in butterfly forewings.

Journal Article eLife · January 2024 Hox gene clusters encode transcription factors that drive regional specialization during animal development: for example the Hox factor Ubx is expressed in the insect metathoracic (T3) wing appendages and differentiates them from T2 mesothoracic ide ... Full text Cite

Frizzled2 receives WntA signaling during butterfly wing pattern formation.

Journal Article Development (Cambridge, England) · September 2023 Butterfly color patterns provide visible and biodiverse phenotypic readouts of the patterning processes. Although the secreted ligand WntA has been shown to instruct the color pattern formation in butterflies, its mode of reception remains elusive. Butterf ... Full text Cite

Evolutionary dynamics of genome size and content during the adaptive radiation of Heliconiini butterflies.

Journal Article Nature communications · September 2023 Heliconius butterflies, a speciose genus of Müllerian mimics, represent a classic example of an adaptive radiation that includes a range of derived dietary, life history, physiological and neural traits. However, key lineages within the genus, and across t ... Full text Open Access Cite

Deep cis-regulatory homology of the butterfly wing pattern ground plan.

Journal Article Science (New York, N.Y.) · October 2022 Butterfly wing patterns derive from a deeply conserved developmental ground plan yet are diverse and evolve rapidly. It is poorly understood how gene regulatory architectures can accommodate both deep homology and adaptive change. To address this, we chara ... Full text Cite

Erratum: Mapping and CRISPR homology-directed repair of a recessive white eye mutation in Plodia moths.

Journal Article iScience · August 2022 [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.103885.]. ... Full text Cite

Mapping and CRISPR homology-directed repair of a recessive white eye mutation in Plodia moths.

Journal Article iScience · March 2022 The pantry moth Plodia interpunctella is a worldwide pest of stored food products and a promising laboratory model system for lepidopteran functional genomics. Here we describe efficient methods for precise genome editing in this insect. A spontaneo ... Full text Cite

Efficient hyperactive piggyBac transgenesis in Plodia pantry moths.

Journal Article Frontiers in genome editing · January 2022 While piggyBac transposon-based transgenesis is widely used in various emerging model organisms, its relatively low transposition rate in butterflies and moths has hindered its use for routine genetic transformation in Lepidoptera. Here, we tested t ... Full text Cite

Molecular Phylogeny and Evolution of Amazon Parrots in the Greater Antilles.

Journal Article Genes · April 2021 Amazon parrots (Amazona spp.) colonized the islands of the Greater Antilles from the Central American mainland, but there has not been a consensus as to how and when this happened. Today, most of the five remaining island species are listed as endan ... Full text Cite

Genomic architecture of a genetically assimilated seasonal color pattern.

Journal Article Science (New York, N.Y.) · November 2020 Developmental plasticity allows genomes to encode multiple distinct phenotypes that can be differentially manifested in response to environmental cues. Alternative plastic phenotypes can be selected through a process called genetic assimilation, although t ... Full text Cite

Multiple roles forlaccase2 in butterfly wing pigmentation, scale development, and cuticle tanning.

Journal Article Evolution & development · July 2020 Lepidopteran wing scales play important roles in a number of functions including color patterning and thermoregulation. Despite the importance of wing scales, however, we still have a limited understanding of the genetic mechanisms that underlie scale patt ... Full text Cite

Parallel evolution of ancient, pleiotropic enhancers underlies butterfly wing pattern mimicry.

Journal Article Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · November 2019 Color pattern mimicry in Heliconius butterflies is a classic case study of complex trait adaptation via selection on a few large effect genes. Association studies have linked color pattern variation to a handful of noncoding regions, yet the presump ... Full text Cite

Macroevolutionary shifts of WntA function potentiate butterfly wing-pattern diversity.

Journal Article Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · October 2017 Butterfly wing patterns provide a rich comparative framework to study how morphological complexity develops and evolves. Here we used CRISPR/Cas9 somatic mutagenesis to test a patterning role for WntA, a signaling ligand gene previously identified a ... Full text Cite

Single master regulatory gene coordinates the evolution and development of butterfly color and iridescence.

Journal Article Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · October 2017 The optix gene has been implicated in butterfly wing pattern adaptation by genetic association, mapping, and expression studies. The actual developmental function of this gene has remained unclear, however. Here we used CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing to ... Full text Cite

ChIP-Seq-Annotated Heliconius erato Genome Highlights Patterns of cis-Regulatory Evolution in Lepidoptera.

Journal Article Cell reports · September 2016 Uncovering phylogenetic patterns of cis-regulatory evolution remains a fundamental goal for evolutionary and developmental biology. Here, we characterize the evolution of regulatory loci in butterflies and moths using chromatin immunoprecipitation sequenci ... Full text Cite

Measuring fast gene dynamics in single cells with time-lapse luminescence microscopy.

Journal Article Molecular biology of the cell · November 2014 Time-lapse fluorescence microscopy is an important tool for measuring in vivo gene dynamics in single cells. However, fluorescent proteins are limited by slow chromophore maturation times and the cellular autofluorescence or phototoxicity that arises from ... Full text Open Access Cite

A locally funded Puerto Rican parrot (Amazona vittata) genome sequencing project increases avian data and advances young researcher education.

Journal Article GigaScience · September 2012 BackgroundAmazona vittata is a critically endangered Puerto Rican endemic bird, the only surviving native parrot species in the United States territory, and the first parrot in the large Neotropical genus Amazona, to be studied on a genomic scale. ... Full text Cite