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First published online June 11, 2007

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Dorsal mediates divergence

Despite the evolutionary distance between fruit flies and mosquitoes, similarities in their embryonic patterning do exist. However, differences in the morphology of their extra-embryonic membranes (EMs) have evolved: whereas Drosophila has one EM (the amnioserosa), the malaria mosquito, Anopheles gambiae, has distinct amnion and serosa tissues. Yury Goltsev and colleagues (see p. 2415) now show that changes in the expression of the dorsal gene network underlie morphological changes in the EMs of these Diptera. Specifically, the occurrence of two EMs in A. gambiae correlates with a broader domain of Decapentaplegic (Dpp) signalling. Studies of dorsal-ventral patterning gene expression profiles in A. gambiae reveal that this expanded Dpp domain arises from the restricted expression of the Dpp inhibitor, Sog. High-affinity Dorsal-binding sites in the Drosophila sog enhancer drives broad sog expression. By contrast, the mosquito sog enhancer contains low-affinity Dorsal-binding sites, which can restrict sog expression in the Drosophila mesoderm. Subtle changes in the Dorsal patterning network have thus altered the morphology of a single EM to form two.

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Related articles in Development:

Evolution of the dorsal-ventral patterning network in the mosquito, Anopheles gambiae

Yury Goltsev, Naoyuki Fuse, Manfred Frasch, Robert P. Zinzen, Gregory Lanzaro, and Mike Levine
Development 2007 134: 2415-2424. [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?