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Position-effect Variegation

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In 1928, a German botanist Emil Heitz observed the moss nuclei with a DNA binding dye. He observed that while some chromatin regions decondense and spread out in the interphase nucleus, others do not. He termed them euchromatin and heterochromatin, respectively. He proposed that the heterochromatin regions reflect a functionally inactive state of the genome. It was later confirmed that heterochromatin is transcriptionally repressed, and euchromatin is transcriptionally active chromatin.

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In addition to multiple alleles at the same locus influencing traits, numerous genes or alleles at different locations may interact and influence phenotypes in a phenomenon called epistasis. For example, rabbit fur can be black or brown depending on whether the animal is homozygous dominant or heterozygous at a TYRP1 locus. However, if the rabbit is also homozygous recessive at a locus on the tyrosinase gene (TYR), it will have an unshaded coat that appears white, regardless of its TYRP1...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 1, 2026

Stripe Assay to Study the Attractive or Repulsive Activity of a Protein Substrate Using Dissociated Hippocampal Neurons

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Published on: June 19, 2016

The function of zebra stripes.

Tim Caro¹, Amanda Izzo², Robert C Reiner³

¹1] Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology, University of California at Davis, 1 Shields Avenue, Davis, California 95616, USA [2] Center for Population Biology, University of California at Davis, 1 Shields Avenue, Davis, California 95616, USA.

Nature Communications

|April 3, 2014

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Zebra stripes primarily function to deter biting flies, not for camouflage or thermoregulation. This study systematically links stripe patterns to reduced ectoparasite annoyance in equids.

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Area of Science:

Zoology
Ecology
Evolutionary Biology

Background:

The functional significance of zebra stripes remains a long-standing question in evolutionary biology.
Previous hypotheses, including camouflage, predator avoidance, thermoregulation, and social signaling, lack systematic empirical support.

Purpose of the Study:

To systematically investigate the function of zebra stripes by testing major evolutionary hypotheses.
To correlate equid striping patterns with environmental variables and potential selective pressures.

Main Methods:

Analysis of striping variation across equid species and subspecies.
Multifactor models controlling for phylogeny to assess associations with environmental variables.
Utilized geographic range overlap with proxies for biting fly annoyance (tabanids, tsetse flies).

Main Results:

Significant associations were found between striping measures and proxies for tabanid fly annoyance at subspecies and species levels.
Belly stripe number correlated with tsetse fly distribution.
No consistent support was found for camouflage, predator avoidance, heat management, or social interaction hypotheses.

Conclusions:

The findings strongly support the hypothesis that zebra stripes serve as a defense against biting flies and ectoparasite attack.
This provides a compelling solution to the long-standing riddle of zebra coloration.
The study highlights the role of parasite pressure in shaping animal coloration.