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Dasmahapatra KK, Walters JR, Briscoe AD, Davey JW, Whibley A, Nadeau NJ, Zimin AV, Hughes DST, Ferguson LC, Martin SH, Salazar C, Lewis JJ, Adler S, Ahn SJ, Baker DA, Baxter SW, Chamberlain NL, Chauhan R, Counterman BA, Dalmay T, Gilbert LE, Gordon K, Heckel DG, Hines HM, Hoff KJ, Holland PWH, Jacquin-Joly E, Jiggins FM, Jones RT, Kapan DD, Kersey P, Lamas G, Lawson D, Mapleson D, Maroja LS, Martin A, Moxon S, Palmer WJ, Papa R, Papanicolaou A, Pauchet Y, Ray DA, Rosser N, Salzberg SL, Supple MA, Surridge A, Tenger-Trolander A, Vogel H, Wilkinson PA, Wilson D, Yorke JA, Yuan F, Balmuth AL, Eland C, Gharbi K, Thomson M, Gibbs RA, Han Y, Jayaseelan JC, Kovar C, Mathew T, Muzny DM, Ongeri F, Pu LL, Qu J, Thornton RL, Worley KC, Wu YQ, Linares M, Blaxter ML, Ffrench-Constant RH, Joron M, Kronforst MR, Mullen SP, Reed RD, Scherer SE, Richards S, Mallet J, Owen McMillan W, Jiggins CD (2012) Butterfly genome reveals promiscuous exchange of mimicry adaptations among species. Nature 487(7405): 94-98.

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ABSTRACT
The evolutionary importance of hybridization and introgression has long been debated. Hybrids are usually rare and unfit, but even infrequent hybridization can aid adaptation by transferring beneficial traits between species. Here we use genomic tools to investigate introgression in Heliconius, a rapidly radiating genus of neotropical butterflies widely used in studies of ecology, behaviour, mimicry and speciation. We sequenced the genome of Heliconius melpomene and compared it with other taxa to investigate chromosomal evolution in Lepidoptera and gene flow among multiple Heliconius species and races. Among 12,669 predicted genes, biologically important expansions of families of chemosensory and Hox genes are particularly noteworthy. Chromosomal organization has remained broadly conserved since the Cretaceous period, when butterflies split from the Bombyx (silkmoth) lineage. Using genomic resequencing, we show hybrid exchange of genes between three co-mimics, Heliconius melpomene, Heliconius timareta and Heliconius elevatus, especially at two genomic regions that control mimicry pattern. We infer that closely related Heliconius species exchange protective colour-pattern genes promiscuously, implying that hybridization has an important role in adaptive radiation.