araucan regulates butterfly wing iridescence by coordinating scale structure and pigmentation

Butterfly wings exhibit a remarkable diversity of structural iridescent colours, yet the genetic regulation of iridescence remains poorly understood. Here, we show that the Iroquois-complex transcription factor gene araucan plays a role in modulating wing scale iridescence in the common buckeye butterfly, Junonia coenia. Using CRISPR-Cas9 knockouts, we demonstrate that loss of araucan function causes dorsal wing scales to shift from golden-brown to blue iridescence, and eyespot centre scales to shift from saturated purple-violet to dull grey-brown. These phenotypes are associated with increased lower lamina thickness (LL) in dorsal cover scales and decreased LL in eyespot-centre cover and ground scales, effects known to influence thin-film interference iridescence, along with reduced pigmentation in eyespot ground scales. Together, these results identify araucan as a single transcription factor that determines colouration by simultaneously regulating both photonic architecture and light-absorbing pigmentation and show that these effects can be regulated in a pattern-specific manner. Our findings provide a framework for linking gene regulation to the spatially coordinated evolution of structural and pigmentary components of colour.