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The beetle Tribolium castaneum has a fushi tarazu homolog expressed in stripes during segmentation.

ABSTRACT: The genetic control of embryonic organization is far better understood for the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster than for any other metazoan. A gene hierarchy acts during oogenesis and embryogenesis to regulate the establishment of segmentation along the anterior-posterior axis, and homeotic selector genes define developmental commitments within each parasegmental unit delineated. One of the most intensively studied Drosophila segmentation genes is fushi tarazu (ftz), a pair-rule gene expressed in stripes that is important for the establishment of the parasegmental boundaries. Although ftz is flanked by homeotic selector genes conserved throughout the metazoa, there is no evidence that it was part of the ancestral homeotic complex, and it has been unclear when the gene arose and acquired a role in segmentation. We show here that the beetle Tribolium castaneum has a ftz homolog located in its Homeotic complex and expressed in a pair-rule fashion, albeit in a register differing from that of the fly gene. These and other observations demonstrate that a ftz gene preexisted the radiation of holometabolous insects and suggest that it has a role in beetle embryogenesis which differs somewhat from that described in flies.

SUBMITTER: Brown SJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC45552 | biostudies-other | 1994 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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The beetle Tribolium castaneum has a fushi tarazu homolog expressed in stripes during segmentation.

Brown S J SJ Hilgenfeld R B RB Denell R E RE

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 19941201 26

The genetic control of embryonic organization is far better understood for the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster than for any other metazoan. A gene hierarchy acts during oogenesis and embryogenesis to regulate the establishment of segmentation along the anterior-posterior axis, and homeotic selector genes define developmental commitments within each parasegmental unit delineated. One of the most intensively studied Drosophila segmentation genes is fushi tarazu (ftz), a pair-rule gene expressed ...[more]

PMID: 7809147

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Project description:UNLABELLED: BACKGROUND:The biting mandible of the arthropods is thought to have evolved in the ancestor of the insects, crustaceans and myriapods: the Mandibulata. A unique origin suggests a common set of developmental genes will be required to pattern the mandible in different arthropods. To date we have functional studies on patterning of the mandibular segment of Drosophila melanogaster showing in particular the effects of the gene cap'n'collar (cnc), however, the dipteran head is far from representative of insects or of more distantly related mandibulates; Drosophila does not even possess a mandibular appendage. To study the development of a more representative insect mandible, we chose the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum and investigated the function of the Tribolium orthologs of cap'n'collar (Tc-cnc) and the Hox gene Deformed (Tc-Dfd). In order to determine the function of Tc-cnc and Tc-Dfd, transcripts were knocked down by maternal RNA interference (RNAi). The effects of gene knockdown were examined in the developing embryos and larvae. The effect of Tc-cnc and Tc-Dfd knockdown on the expression of other genes was determined by using in situ hybridization on Tribolium embryos. RESULTS:Our analyses show that Tc-cnc is required for specification of the identity of the mandibular segment of Tribolium and differentiates the mandible from maxillary identity. Loss of Tc-cnc function results in a transformation of the mandible to maxillary identity as well as deletion of the labrum. Tc-Dfd and the Tribolium homolog of proboscipedia (Tc-mxp?=?maxillopedia), Hox genes that are required to pattern the maxillary appendage, are expressed in a maxilla-like manner in the transformed mandible. Tribolium homologs of paired (Tc-prd) and Distal-less (Tc-Dll) that are expressed in the endites and telopodites of embryonic appendages are also expressed in a maxilla-like manner in the transformed mandible.We also show that Tc-Dfd is required to activate the collar of Tc-cnc expression in the mandibular segment but not the cap expression in the labrum. Tc-Dfd is also required for the activation of Tc-prd in the endites of the mandible and maxillary appendages. CONCLUSIONS:Tc-cnc is necessary for patterning the mandibular segment of Tribolium. Together, Tc-cnc and Tc-Dfd cooperate to specify mandibular identity, as in Drosophila. Expression patterns of the homologs of cnc and Dfd are conserved in mandibulate arthropods suggesting that the mandible specifying function of cnc is likely to be conserved across the mandibulate arthropods.

Dataset Information

The beetle Tribolium castaneum has a fushi tarazu homolog expressed in stripes during segmentation.

Publications

The beetle Tribolium castaneum has a fushi tarazu homolog expressed in stripes during segmentation.

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