The diversity of genital morphology among closely related animals with internal fertilization
is well known, but the genetic backgrounds are unclear. Here, we show that, in Carabus
(Ohomopterus) beetles showing correlated evolution of male and female genital parts, only
a few major quantitative trait loci (QTLs) determine differences in genital dimensions
between sister species, and sequence divergence is pronounced in the genomic regions
containing genital QTLs. The major QTLs for male and female genital dimensions reside in …