Probing the Drosophila retinal determination gene network in Tribolium (I): The early retinal genes dachshund, eyes absent and sine oculis

摘要

Theearlyretinalgenesemdachshund/em(emdac/em),emeyesabsent/em(emeya/em)andemsineoculis/em(emso/em)arekeyregulatorsofadulteyedevelopmentinemDrosophila/em.Expressiondataimplicatehomologsofallthreetranscriptionfactorgenesinvertebrateeyedevelopment.However,functionalconfirmationhasthusfaronlybeenreportedforemso/emhomologs.WethereforeinvestigatedexpressionandfunctionofthesegenesintheredflourbeetleemTriboliumcastaneum/em.OurresultsshowthatemTriboliumso/emandemeya/emareessentialforbothlarvalandadulteyedevelopment.Moreover,widespreadco-expressionandindistinguishableknockdownphenotypessuggestsemeya/eminteractionwithemso/eminmanytissues.emdac/emexpression,bycontrast,overlapswithemeya/emandemso/emonlyinselecttissues,which,however,includestheprimordiaoflarvalandadulteyes.Notwithstanding,emdac/emknockdownhasnodetectableeffectonlarvaleyedevelopmentandcausesstrongbutincompleteadulteyereduction.Inaparallelstudy,weshowthatemdac/emisessentialforadulteyedevelopmentincombinationwiththePax6transcriptionfactorsemeyeless/em(emey/em)andemtwinofeyeless/em(emtoy/em).Takentogether,ourdatarevealconservationbutalsoevolutionaryplasticityoftheemDrosophila/emretinaldeterminationgenenetworkininsects./p/div