Back to Search
Start Over
The expression and function of the achaete-scute genes in Tribolium castaneum reveals conservation and variation in neural pattern formation and cell fate specification
- Source :
- Development (Cambridge, England). 130(18)
- Publication Year :
- 2003
- Publisher :
- United States: NASA Center for Aerospace Information (CASI), 2003.
-
Abstract
- The study of achaete-scute (ac/sc) genes has recently become a paradigm to understand the evolution and development of the arthropod nervous system. We describe the identification and characterization of the ac/sc genes in the coleopteran insect species Tribolium castaneum. We have identified two Tribolium ac/sc genes - achaete-scute homolog (Tc-ASH) a proneural gene and asense (Tc-ase) a neural precursor gene that reside in a gene complex. Focusing on the embryonic central nervous system we find that Tc-ASH is expressed in all neural precursors and the proneural clusters from which they segregate. Through RNAi and misexpression studies we show that Tc-ASH is necessary for neural precursor formation in Tribolium and sufficient for neural precursor formation in Drosophila. Comparison of the function of the Drosophila and Tribolium proneural ac/sc genes suggests that in the Drosophila lineage these genes have maintained their ancestral function in neural precursor formation and have acquired a new role in the fate specification of individual neural precursors. Furthermore, we find that Tc-ase is expressed in all neural precursors suggesting an important and conserved role for asense genes in insect nervous system development. Our analysis of the Tribolium ac/sc genes indicates significant plasticity in gene number, expression and function, and implicates these modifications in the evolution of arthropod neural development.
- Subjects :
- Life Sciences (General)
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 09501991
- Volume :
- 130
- Issue :
- 18
- Database :
- NASA Technical Reports
- Journal :
- Development (Cambridge, England)
- Notes :
- NS 36570
- Publication Type :
- Report
- Accession number :
- edsnas.20040087571
- Document Type :
- Report
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.00646