I subsequently wrote email to the presenters that this "was probably the most information and insight that I've gotten in any one hour for the past 5 years. Please pass along my compliments to all involved."March 16, 12 p.m.
Thomas C. Emmel Seminar Series presents: Expanding Horizons in Lepidoptera Research
Speaker: Arnaud Martin
Institution: George Washington University, Washington D.C., USA
Title: From genes to butterfly scale & color diversity (currently indexed as "The genetic basis of color patterning in butterfly wings")
You can probably guess that I highly recommend this presentation to other people.
If you're interested in anything to do with butterfly scales, including how they work, how they form, how this can be investigated with CRISPR knock-outs, and so on and so on, then I guarantee there'll be something in here for you.
Example: Some but not all yellow butterflies in the genus Colias are iridescent in UV, a property granted by Morpho-like nanostructures on the scales. Presence/absence of UV iridescence is controlled by a single recessive gene on the sex-determining chromosome. Between two closely related "incipient" species, C. eurytheme and C. philodice, the females of C. eurytheme use UV iridescence in the males for mate selection, which, combined with the recessive nature of the controlling gene, allows them to avoid mating with philodice or even hybrid males, and that's a Good Thing because any female offspring who get a philodice sex chromosome end up sterile.
Direct link to the recording: HERE
Link to the collection of recordings: https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/nhdept/seminars/
--Rik
One caveat: the speaker's language is excellent English, but he has a significant French accent and he uses a lot of technical terms and scientific names that may be unfamiliar. To hear it all correctly may take several tries. There is a transcript but it is so riddled with automatic transcription errors that I find it more derailing than helpful. I recommend to read the slides, listen to the audio, and ignore the transcript.
* Start at 00:35:43 for a wonderful example of "derailing".