title: Lesions in the wingless gene of the Apollo butterfly (Parnassius apollo, Lepidoptera: Papilionidae) individuals with deformed or reduced wings, coming from the isolated population in Pieniny (Poland).
abstract: Parnassius apollo (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae) is a butterfly species which was common in Europe in 19th century, but now it is considered as near threatened. Various programs devoted to protect and save P. apollo have been established, between others the one in Pieniny National Park (Poland). An isolated population of this butterfly has been restored there from a small group of 20-30 individuals in early 1990s. However, deformations or reductions of wings occur in this population in a relatively large number of insects, and the cause of this phenomenon is not known. In this report, the occurrence of lesions in the wingless (wg) gene is demonstrated in most of tested butterflies with deformed or reduced wings, but not in normal insects. Although the analyses indicated that wg lesion(s) cannot be the sole cause of the deformed or reduced wings in the population of P. apollo from Pieniny, the discovery that this genetic defect occurs in most of malformed individuals, can be considered as an important step in understanding this phenomenon.
authors.affiliation: Division of Molecular Biology and Clinical Genetics, Department of Medicine, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Skawińska 8, 31-066 Cracow, Poland; Department of Molecular Biology, University of Gdańsk, Wita Stwosza 59, 80-308 Gdańsk, Poland.
authors.forename: Kinga
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Łukasiewicz
authors.affiliation: Division of Molecular Biology and Clinical Genetics, Department of Medicine, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Skawińska 8, 31-066 Cracow, Poland.
authors.forename: Marek
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sanak
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, University of Gdańsk, Wita Stwosza 59, 80-308 Gdańsk, Poland. Electronic address: grzegorz.wegrzyn@biol.ug.edu.pl.
authors.forename: Grzegorz
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Węgrzyn
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002080:Butterflies / Q000235:genetics*; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics; D017344:Genes, Insect; D011044:Poland; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013698:Templates, Genetic; D014921:Wings, Animal / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D004247:DNA
keywords: Apollo butterfly; Deformed wings; Reduced wings; Wingless gene