First published online March 15, 2004
Development 131, 705e (2004)
© The Company of Biologists Limited
Creepy crawly developmental diversity
The adult body plan of insects is highly conserved but the developmental
processes underlying its formation can vary greatly between different species.
Liu and Kaufman report that hunchback, a gap gene involved in the
subdivision of the blastoderm in Drosophila, has two separate roles
in Oncopeltus fasciatus, the milkweed bug (see
p. 1515). In
Drosophila, a long germband insect, all of the body segments are
specified simultaneously during the blastoderm stage. In Oncopeltus,
an intermediate germband insect, only the anterior segments are proportionally
represented in the blastoderm fate map; posterior segments are specified
later, during germband elongation. In RNAi-based experiments, the researchers
show that Oncopeltus hunchback both suppresses abdominal identity at
the blastoderm stage and is required for germband growth and segmentation.
Thus, although hunchback-depleted Oncopeltus and
Drosophila both have a relatively normal head followed immediately by
abdominal segments, the developmental events underlying this phenotype are
very different.
Related articles in Development:
- hunchback is required for suppression of abdominal identity, and for proper germband growth and segmentation in the intermediate germband insect Oncopeltus fasciatus
- Paul Z. Liu and Thomas C. Kaufman
Development 2004 131: 1515-1527.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
