Question

Are there differences in dominance relationships for wild type and mutant alleles in Scleroporus undulatus and Aspidoscelis inornata?

Answer 1

The phenotype convergence could be seen in two species of lizards scleroporus(whip tail) and aspedoscelis (fence).

The two different mutations causes down regulation in melanocarticotrpin receptor signaling leads to lowering melanin levels in their skin which matches with white Sands in their surroundings to avoid predators. Here the mutation in whiptail lizard is carried for lowering the efficency of signaling while the mutation in fence lizard is to reduce the availability of mcr1 receptor on suface of melanin producing cells. The mutation in whip tail is recessive to wild type phenotype but the mutation in fence lizard is dominant to wild type. The differences in domination of alleles related to their distinct geographical distributions where the blanched allele reaches nearly 90% in the white sand population of whiptail lizards, but never exceed's 50% in the fence lizards.