Many animal species remain separate not because their individuals fail to produce viable hybrids but because they “choose” not to mate. However, we still know very little of the genetic mechanisms underlying changes in these mate preference behaviours. Heliconius butterflies display bright warning patterns, which they also use to recognize conspecifics. Here, we couple QTL for divergence in visual preference behaviours with population genomic and gene expression analyses of neural tissue (central brain, optic lobes and ommatidia) across development in two sympatric Heliconius species. Within a region containing 200 genes, we identify five genes that are strongly associated with divergent visual preferences. Three of these have previously been implicated in key components of neural signalling (specifically an ionotropic glutamate receptor and two regucalcins), and overall our candidates suggest shifts in behaviour involve changes in visual integration or processing. This would allow preference evolution without altering perception of the wider environment.

许多动物物种保持分离并不是因为它们的个体无法产生可行的杂交种，而是因为它们“选择”不交配。然而，我们对这些择偶行为变化背后的遗传机制仍然知之甚少。赫利康蝴蝶表现出明亮的警告图案，它们也用这些图案来识别同种蝴蝶。在这里，我们将视觉偏好行为差异的 QTL 与两个同域Heliconius物种发育过程中神经组织（中枢脑、视叶和小眼）的群体基因组和基因表达分析结合起来。在包含 200 个基因的区域内，我们确定了 5 个与不同视觉偏好密切相关的基因。其中三个先前与神经信号传导的关键成分有关（特别是离子型谷氨酸受体和两种调节钙素），总体而言，我们的候选人表明行为的转变涉及视觉整合或处理的变化。这将允许偏好的演变而不改变对更广泛环境的感知。