Variation in Mesoderm Specification across Drosophilids Is Compensated by Different Rates of Myoblast Fusion during Body Wall Musculature Development

摘要

BackgroundIt has been shown that species separated by relatively short evolutionary distances may have extreme variations in egg size and shape. Those variations are expected to modify the polarized morphogenetic gradients that pattern the dorso-ventral axis of embryos. Currently, little is known about the effects of scaling over the embryonic architecture of organisms. We began examining this problem by asking if changes in embryo size in closely related species of Drosophila modify all three dorso-ventral germ layers or only particular layers, and whether or not tissue patterning would be affected at later stages.