Genome assembly of a nocturnal butterfly (Macrosoma leucophasiata) reveals convergent adaptation of visual genes

Nearly all animals exhibit a preferred period of daily activity (diel-niche), strongly influenced by the light environment. Vision is a sensory system that is strongly adapted to light, and evolutionary transitions to novel light environments can impose strong constraints on eye evolution, color, and motion vision. While the genetic and neural basis of visual adaptation are well-studied in a few model systems, our understanding across the tree of life remains incomplete. Butterflies and moths are an ideal system to investigate the association between gene evolution and diel-niche transitions. While most butterflies are day-flying, hedylid butterflies are unique in being primarily nocturnal, representing an important evolutionary shift from diurnality to nocturnality. We sequenced the first Hedylidae genome and annotated it to understand genomic changes associated with diel niche shifts. Comparing Hedylidae visual genes to those of other diurnal and nocturnal Lepidoptera revealed that visual genes are highly conserved, with no major losses. However, hedylid opsins were more similar to nocturnal moths than their diurnal congeners, suggesting that these opsins convergently evovled to adapt to the nocturnal environment. Evolutionary rate tests (dN/dS) confirmed strong selection on color vision opsins, with some sites being mapped to the functional domain of the blue opsin. Our study provides new insight into the molecular evolutionary adaptations associated with species' changes to new light environments.