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First published online September 28, 2006

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Caudal: an ancestral master organiser

The establishment of the anteroposterior axis is an important early event in embryogenesis. Many of the molecular components of this process are conserved through evolution. However, Bicoid - the master organiser of anterior development in Drosophila - is not present in non-dipteran insects. So, to study the evolution of body plan patterning, Olesnicky and co-workers have turned to the wasp Nasonia (see p. 3973). Wasps lack Bicoid but their embryos are patterned completely within a syncytial environment like fly embryos. The researchers report that a gradient of localised caudal mRNA directs posterior patterning in Nasonia embryos in contrast to Drosophila embryos, in which the translational repression of caudal mRNA by Bicoid establishes a gradient of Caudal protein. The researchers also show that Nasonia caudal activates the expression of gap genes, which then activate pair-rule gene expression; in Drosophila, caudal mostly regulates pair-rule gene expression. These results suggest that caudal is an ancestral master organiser of patterning but that its role has been reduced in dipterans.

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Related articles in Development:

A caudal mRNA gradient controls posterior development in the wasp Nasonia

Eugenia C. Olesnicky, Ava E. Brent, Lori Tonnes, Megan Walker, Mary Anne Pultz, David Leaf, and Claude Desplan
Development 2006 133: 3973-3982. [Abstract] [Full Text]  

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Related articles in Development Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?