| methuselah-like genes affect development, stress resistance, lifespan and reproduction in tribolium castaneum. | methuselah (mth) is associated with lifespan, stress resistance and reproduction in drosophila melanogaster, but mth is not present in nondrosophiline insects. a number of methuselah-likes (mthls) have been identified in nondrosophiline insects, but it is unknown whether the functions of mth are shared by mthls or are divergent from them. five mthls have been identified in tribolium castaneum. although they have different developmental expression patterns, they all enhance resistance to starvati ... | 2014 | 24924269 |
| non-invasive long-term fluorescence live imaging of tribolium castaneum embryos. | insect development has contributed significantly to our understanding of metazoan development. however, most information has been obtained by analyzing a single species, the fruit fly drosophila melanogaster. embryonic development of the red flour beetle tribolium castaneum differs fundamentally from that of drosophila in aspects such as short-germ development, embryonic leg development, extensive extra-embryonic membrane formation and non-involuted head development. although tribolium has becom ... | 2014 | 24803590 |
| a functional genetic analysis in flour beetles (tenebrionidae) reveals an antennal identity specification mechanism active during metamorphosis in holometabola. | the antenna was the first arthropod ventral appendage to evolve non-leg identity. models of antennal evolution have been based on comparisons of antennal and leg identity specification mechanisms in drosophila melanogaster, a species in which appendages develop from highly derived imaginal discs during the larval period. we test for conservation of the drosophila antennal identity specification mechanism at metamorphosis in tribolium castaneum and three other flour beetle species (tribolium conf ... | 2014 | 24534744 |
| conservation and evolutionary modifications of neuroblast expression patterns in insects. | one of the major questions in evolutionary developmental neurobiology is how neuronal networks have been adapted to different morphologies and behaviour during evolution. analyses of neurogenesis in representatives of all arthropod species have revealed evolutionary modifications of various developmental mechanisms. among others, variations can be seen in mechanisms that are associated with changes in neural progenitor identity, which in turn determines the neuronal subtype of their progeny. com ... | 2014 | 24525296 |
| tribolium embryo morphogenesis: may the force be with you. | development of multicellular organisms depends on patterning and growth mechanisms encoded in the genome, but also on the physical properties and mechanical interactions of the constituent cells that interpret these genetic cues. this fundamental biological problem requires integrated studies at multiple levels of biological organization: from genes, to cell behaviors, to tissue morphogenesis. we have recently combined functional genetics with live imaging approaches in embryos of the insect tri ... | 2017 | 24451992 |
| the gap gene krüppel of rhodnius prolixus is required for segmentation and for repression of the homeotic gene sex comb-reduced. | the establishment of the anterior-posterior segmentation in insects requires the concerted action of a hierarchical gene network. here, we study the orthologue of krüppel gap gene in the hemipteran rhodnius prolixus (rp-kr). we characterized its structure, expression pattern and function. the genomic sequence upstream of the rp-kr transcriptional unit shows a putative regulatory region conserved in the orthologue genes from drosophila melanogaster and tribolium castaneum. rp-kr expression is zyg ... | 2014 | 24406318 |
| subdivision of arthropod cap-n-collar expression domains is restricted to mandibulata. | the monophyly of mandibulata - the division of arthropods uniting pancrustaceans and myriapods - is consistent with several morphological characters, such as the presence of sensory appendages called antennae and the eponymous biting appendage, the mandible. functional studies have demonstrated that the patterning of the mandible requires the activity of the hox gene deformed and the transcription factor cap-n-collar (cnc) in at least two holometabolous insects: the fruit fly drosophila melanoga ... | 2014 | 24405788 |
| identification and embryonic expression of wnt2, wnt4, wnt5 and wnt9 in the millipede glomeris marginata (myriapoda: diplopoda). | the wnt genes encode secreted glycoprotein ligands that are key players during animal development. previous studies revealed the presence of 12 classes of wnt genes in protostomes, although lineage specific losses of wnt genes are common. so far, the gene expression profile of only two complete sets of arthropod wnt genes has been studied; these are the wnt genes of the fly drosophila melanogaster and the beetle tribolium castaneum. insects, however, do not represent good models for the understa ... | 2014 | 24398121 |
| the development and functions of oenocytes. | oenocytes have intrigued insect physiologists since the nineteenth century. many years of careful but mostly descriptive research on these cells highlights their diverse sizes, numbers, and anatomical distributions across insecta. contemporary molecular genetic studies in drosophila melanogaster and tribolium castaneum support the hypothesis that oenocytes are of ectodermal origin. they also suggest that, in both short and long germ-band species, oenocytes are induced from a spalt major/engraile ... | 2014 | 24397521 |
| a screen for bacterial endosymbionts in the model organisms tribolium castaneum, t. confusum, callosobruchus maculatus, and related species. | reproductive parasites such as wolbachia are extremely widespread amongst the arthropods and can have a large influence over the reproduction and fitness of their hosts. undetected infections could thus confound the results of a wide range of studies that focus on aspects of host behavior, reproduction, fitness, and degrees of reproductive isolation. this potential problem has already been underlined by work investigating the incidence of wolbachia infections in stocks of the model system drosop ... | 2015 | 24347564 |
| the evolving role of the orphan nuclear receptor ftz-f1, a pair-rule segmentation gene. | segmentation is a critical developmental process that occurs by different mechanisms in diverse taxa. in insects, there are three common modes of embryogenesis-short-, intermediate-, and long-germ development-which differ in the number of segments specified at the blastoderm stage. while genes involved in segmentation have been extensively studied in the long-germ insect drosophila melanogaster (dm), it has been found that their expression and function in segmentation in short- and intermediate- ... | 2013 | 24261442 |
| sizing up arthropod genomes: an evaluation of the impact of environmental variation on genome size estimates by flow cytometry and the use of qpcr as a method of estimation. | a study was undertaken to evaluate both a pre-existing method and a newly proposed approach for the estimation of nuclear genome sizes in arthropods. first, concerns regarding the reliability of the well-established method of flow cytometry relating to impacts of rearing conditions on genome size estimates were examined. contrary to previous reports, a more carefully controlled test found negligible environmental effects on genome size estimates in the fly drosophila melanogaster. second, a more ... | 2013 | 24168671 |
| limitations of rnai of α6 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunits for assessing the in vivo sensitivity to spinosad. | spinosad is a widely used insecticide that exerts its toxic effect primarily through interactions with the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. the α6 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunit is involved in spinosad toxicity as demonstrated by the high levels of resistance observed in strains lacking α6. rnai was performed against the dα6 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunit in drosophila melanogaster using the gal4-uas system to examine if rnai would yield results similar to those of dα6 null ... | 2013 | 23955830 |
| genome-wide screening for components of small interfering rna (sirna) and micro-rna (mirna) pathways in the brown planthopper, nilaparvata lugens (hemiptera: delphacidae). | the brown planthopper (bph), nilaparvata lugens, is a major rice pest in asia, and accumulated evidence indicates that this species is susceptible to rna interference (rnai); however, the mechanism underlying rnai and parental rnai has not yet been determined. we comprehensively investigated the repertoire of core genes involved in small interfering rna (sirna) and micro-rna (mirna) pathways in the bph by comparing its newly assembled transcriptome and genome with those of drosophila melanogaste ... | 2013 | 23937246 |
| the red flour beetle tribolium castaneum as a model to monitor food safety and functionality. | : food quality is a fundamental issue all over the world. there are two major requirements to provide the highest quality of food: having the lowest reachable concentrations of health-threatening ingredients or contaminants and having the optimal concentrations of health-improving functional ingredients. often, the boundaries of both requirements are blurred, as might be best exemplified by nutraceuticals (enriched food products invented to prevent or even treat diseases), for which undesirable ... | 2013 | 23748350 |
| immune competence in insect eggs depends on the extraembryonic serosa. | innate immunity is common to all metazoans and serves as a first line of defense against pathogens. although the immune response of adult and larval insects has been well characterized, it remains unknown whether the insect egg is able to mount an immune response. contrary to drosophila, tribolium eggs develop an extraembryonic epithelium, the serosa. epithelia are well known for their ability to fight infection, so the serosa has the potential to protect the embryo against pathogens. to test th ... | 2013 | 23732406 |
| changes in anterior head patterning underlie the evolution of long germ embryogenesis. | early embryonic stages differ significantly among related animal taxa while subsequent development converges at the conserved phylotypic stage before again diverging. although this phenomenon has long been observed, its underlying genetic mechanisms remain enigmatic. the dipteran drosophila melanogaster develops as a long germ embryo where the head anlagen form a cap at the anterior pole of the blastoderm. consequently, the anterior and terminal maternal systems give crucial input for head patte ... | 2013 | 23201022 |
| identification of maternally-loaded rna transcripts in unfertilized eggs of tribolium castaneum. | maternal rnas play a critical role in early development. variation in the diversity and levels of maternally derived gene transcripts may be central to the origin of phenotypic novelty -- a longstanding problem in evolution and development. by studying maternal transcriptomes within and between divergent species, a better understanding of the evolutionary forces acting on maternal rna allocation is possible. | 2012 | 23181844 |
| cap'n'collar differentiates the mandible from the maxilla in the beetle tribolium castaneum. | | 2012 | 23114106 |
| the skeletomuscular system of the larva of drosophila melanogaster (drosophilidae, diptera): a contribution to the morphology of a model organism. | the morphological features of the third instar larva of the most important insect model, drosophila melanogaster, are documented for the first time using a broad spectrum of modern morphological techniques. external structures of the body wall, the cephaloskeleton, and the musculature are described and illustrated. additional information about other internal organs is provided. the systematic implications of the findings are discussed briefly. internal apomorphic features of brachycera and cyclo ... | 2013 | 23010508 |
| egfr signaling regulates distal as well as medial fate in the embryonic leg of tribolium castaneum. | the evolution of a mechanism to generate a proximal-distal axis perpendicular to the anterior-posterior body axis was a key event in arthropod evolution and facilitated the formation of multi-functional limbs. the study of proximodistal limb patterning in extant arthropods can provide insight into the origin and evolution of the proximal-distal axis. in drosophila melanogaster, proximal-distal patterning is mainly organized by wg/dpp signaling. egfr signaling is also involved, but is restricted ... | 2012 | 22921411 |
| heat shock-mediated misexpression of genes in the beetle tribolium castaneum. | insect gene function has mainly been studied in the fruit fly drosophila melanogaster because in this species many techniques and resources are available for gene knock down and the ectopic activation of gene function. however, in order to study biological aspects that are not represented by the drosophila model, and in order to test to what degree gene functions are conserved within insects and what changes in gene function accompanied the evolution of novel traits, the establishment of respect ... | 2012 | 22890852 |
| discovery of catalytically active orthologues of the parkinson's disease kinase pink1: analysis of substrate specificity and impact of mutations. | missense mutations of the phosphatase and tensin homolog (pten)-induced kinase 1 (pink1) gene cause autosomal-recessive parkinson's disease. to date, little is known about the intrinsic catalytic properties of pink1 since the human enzyme displays such low kinase activity in vitro. we have discovered that, in contrast to mammalian pink1, insect orthologues of pink1 we have investigated-namely drosophila melanogaster (dpink1), tribolium castaneum (tcpink1) and pediculus humanus corporis (phcpink1 ... | 2011 | 22645651 |
| extent with modification: leg patterning in the beetle tribolium castaneum and the evolution of serial homologs. | serial homologs are similar structures that develop at different positions within a body plan. these structures share some, but not all, aspects of developmental patterning, and their evolution is thought to be constrained by shared, pleiotropic gene functions. here we describe the functions of 17 developmental genes during metamorphic development of the legs in the red flour beetle, tribolium castaneum. this study provides informative comparisons between appendage development in drosophila mela ... | 2012 | 22384402 |
| oenocyte development in the red flour beetle tribolium castaneum. | oenocytes are a specialized cell type required for lipid processing, pheromone secretion, and developmental signaling. their development has been well characterized in drosophila melanogaster, but it remains unknown whether the developmental program is conserved in other insect species. in this study, we compare and contrast the specification and development of larval oenocytes between drosophila and the red flour beetle, tribolium castaneum. first, we identify several useful reagents to label l ... | 2012 | 22382810 |
| comparisons of the embryonic development of drosophila, nasonia, and tribolium. | studying the embryogenesis of diverse insect species is crucial to understanding insect evolution. here, we review current advances in understanding the development of two emerging model organisms: the wasp nasonia vitripennis and the beetle tribolium castaneum in comparison with the well-studied fruit fly drosophila melanogaster. although nasonia represents the most basally branching order of holometabolous insects, it employs a derived long germband mode of embryogenesis, more like that of dro ... | 2017 | 23801665 |
| identification of the drosophila and tribolium receptors for the recently discovered insect ryamide neuropeptides. | one year ago, we discovered a new family of insect ryamide neuropeptides, which has the c-terminal consensus sequence ffxxxryamide, and which is widely occurring in most insects, including the fruitfly drosophila melanogaster and the red flour beetle tribolium castaneum (f. hauser et al., j. proteome res. 9 (2010) 5296-5310). here, we identify a drosophila g-protein-coupled receptor (gpcr) coded for by gene cg5811 and its tribolium gpcr ortholog as insect ryamide receptors. the drosophila ryamid ... | 2011 | 21843505 |
| microrna evolution by arm switching. | micrornas (mirnas) modulate transcript stability and translation. functional mature mirnas are processed from one or both arms of the hairpin precursor. the mir-100/10 family has undergone three independent evolutionary events that have switched the arm from which the functional mirna is processed. the dominant mir-10 sequences in the insects drosophila melanogaster and tribolium castaneum are processed from opposite arms. however, the duplex produced by dicer cleavage has an identical sequence ... | 2011 | 21212805 |
| genetics, development and composition of the insect head--a beetle's view. | many questions regarding evolution and ontogeny of the insect head remain open. likewise, the genetic basis of insect head development is poorly understood. recently, the investigation of gene expression data and the analysis of patterning gene function have revived interest in insect head development. here, we argue that the red flour beetle tribolium castaneum is a well suited model organism to spearhead research with respect to the genetic control of insect head development. we review recent ... | 2010 | 20800703 |
| evolution of extracellular dpp modulators in insects: the roles of tolloid and twisted-gastrulation in dorsoventral patterning of the tribolium embryo. | the formation of the bmp gradient which patterns the dv axis in flies and vertebrates requires several extracellular modulators like the inhibitory protein sog/chordin, the metalloprotease tolloid (tld), which cleaves sog/chordin, and the cr domain protein twisted gastrulation (tsg). while flies and vertebrates have only one sog/chordin gene they possess several paralogues of tld and tsg. a simpler and probably ancestral situation is observed in the short-germ beetle tribolium castaneum (tc), wh ... | 2010 | 20510683 |
| egf signaling and the origin of axial polarity among the insects. | the eggs of insects are unusual in that they often have bilateral symmetry when they are laid, indicating that both anterior-posterior (ap) and dorsal-ventral (dv) symmetries are broken during oogenesis. the molecular basis of this process is well understood in drosophila melanogaster, in which symmetry breaking events for both axes depend on the asymmetric position of the oocyte nucleus and on germline-soma signaling mediated by the tgf alpha-like epidermal growth factor (egf) ligand gurken. ge ... | 2010 | 20471269 |
| a brain-specific cytochrome p450 responsible for the majority of deltamethrin resistance in the qtc279 strain of tribolium castaneum. | cytochrome p450-mediated detoxification is one of the most important mechanisms involved in insecticide resistance. however, the molecular basis of this mechanism and the physiological functions of p450s associated with insecticide resistance remain largely unknown. here, we exploited the functional genomics and reverse genetic approaches to identify and characterize a p450 gene responsible for the majority of deltamethrin resistance observed in the qtc279 strain of tribolium castaneum. we used ... | 2010 | 20410462 |
| identification, mrna expression and functional analysis of several yellow family genes in tribolium castaneum. | querying the genome of the red flour beetle, tribolium castaneum, with the drosophila melanogaster yellow-y (dmy-y) protein sequence identified 14 yellow homologs. one of these is an ortholog of dmy-y, which is required for cuticle pigmentation (melanization), and another is an ortholog of dmy-f/f2, which functions as a dopachrome conversion enzyme (dce). phylogenetic analysis identified putative t. castaneum orthologs for eight of the d. melanogaster yellow genes, including dmy-b, -c, -e, -f, - ... | 2010 | 20149870 |
| physiological truncation and domain organization of a novel uracil-dna-degrading factor. | uracil in dna is usually considered to be an error, but it may be used for signaling in drosophila development via recognition by a novel uracil-dna-degrading factor (ude) [(bekesi a et al. (2007) biochem biophys res commun 355, 643-648]. the ude protein has no detectable similarity to any other uracil-dna-binding factors, and has no structurally or functionally described homologs. here, a combination of theoretical and experimental analyses reveals the domain organization and dna-binding patter ... | 2010 | 20121948 |
| a conserved function of the zinc finger transcription factor sp8/9 in allometric appendage growth in the milkweed bug oncopeltus fasciatus. | the genes encoding the closely related zinc finger transcription factors buttonhead (btd) and d-sp1 are expressed in the developing limb primordia of drosophila melanogaster and are required for normal growth of the legs. the d-sp1 homolog of the red flour beetle tribolium castaneum, sp8 (appropriately termed sp8/9), is also required for the proper growth of the leg segments. here we report on the isolation and functional study of the sp8/9 gene from the milkweed bug oncopeltus fasciatus. we sho ... | 2009 | 19760183 |
| insertional mutagenesis screening identifies the zinc finger homeodomain 2 (zfh2) gene as a novel factor required for embryonic leg development in tribolium castaneum. | the genetic control of leg development is well characterized in the fly drosophila melanogaster. these control mechanisms, however, must differ to some degree between different insect species to account for the morphological diversity of thoracic legs in the insects. the legs of the flour beetle tribolium castaneum differ from the drosophila legs in their developmental mode as well as in their specific morphology especially at the larval stage. in order to identify genes involved in the morphoge ... | 2009 | 19760181 |
| genetic differentiation among wild populations of tribolium castaneum estimated using microsatellite markers. | we report our characterization of the genetic variation within and differentiation among wild-collected populations of the red flour beetle, tribolium castaneum, using microsatellite loci identified from its genome sequence. we find that global differentiation, estimated as the average f(st) across all loci and between all population pairs, is 0.180 (95% confidence intervals of 0.142 and 0.218). a majority of our pairwise population comparisons (>70%) were significant even though this species is ... | 2017 | 19734259 |
| the ligand-binding domains of the three rxr-usp nuclear receptor types support distinct tissue and ligand specific hormonal responses in transgenic drosophila. | in insects, 20-hydroxyecdysone acts by binding on a heterodimer constituted by the ecdysone receptor (ecr) and ultraspiracle (usp), the homolog to the vertebrate retinoid x receptor (rxr). two types of usp have been characterized based on their structure and function, mecopterida usp (diptera/lepidoptera usp), in particular the fruitfly drosophila melanogaster usp (dmusp) and non mecopterida usp, exemplified by the beetle tribolium castaneum usp (tcusp) both showing structural differences from t ... | 2009 | 19268446 |
| comparative gene expression in the heads of drosophila melanogaster and tribolium castaneum and the segmental affinity of the drosophila hypopharyngeal lobes. | drosophila melanogaster has long played an important role in debates surrounding insect and arthropod head segmentation. it is surprising, therefore, that one important feature of drosophila head segmentation has remained controversial: namely the position of the boundary between the intercalary and mandibular segments. the drosophila embryonic head has a pair of structures lying behind the stomodeum known as the hypopharyngeal lobes. traditionally they have been seen as part of the intercalary ... | 2009 | 19196336 |
| genetic patterning in the adult capitate antenna of the beetle tribolium castaneum. | antenna structure varies widely among insects, in contrast to the well-conserved structure of legs. the adult capitate antenna of the red flour beetle, tribolium castaneum, is composed of eleven articles, organized into four distinct morphological regions (scape, pedicel, funicle and club). here, we report the use of rna interference to examine the functions of 21 genes during antenna metamorphosis in t. castaneum. genes with conserved functions relative to the developmental model species drosop ... | 2009 | 19059230 |
| the tribolium spineless ortholog specifies both larval and adult antennal identity. | the morphology of insect antennae varies widely among species, but our understanding of antennal development comes almost solely from studies of one species-the fruit fly, drosophila melanogaster. moreover, this knowledge applies mostly to adult structures, since drosophila lacks external larval appendages. in contrast to drosophila, the red flour beetle, tribolium castaneum, has both larval and adult antennae, which are very different from one another in morphology. thus, tribolium provides an ... | 2009 | 19030877 |
| krüppel homolog 1, an early juvenile hormone-response gene downstream of methoprene-tolerant, mediates its anti-metamorphic action in the red flour beetle tribolium castaneum. | juvenile hormone (jh) prevents ecdysone-induced metamorphosis in insects. however, our knowledge of the molecular mechanisms of jh action is still fragmented. krüppel homolog 1 (kr-h1) is a jh-inducible transcription factor in drosophila melanogaster (minakuchi, c., zhou, x., riddiford, l.m., 2008b. krüppel homolog 1 (kr-h1) mediates juvenile hormone action during metamorphosis of drosophila melanogaster. mech. dev. 125, 91-105). analysis of expression of the homologous gene (tckr-h1) in the bee ... | 2009 | 19013451 |
| metamorphosis and adult development of the mushroom bodies of the red flour beetle, tribolium castaneum. | the insect mushroom bodies play important roles in a number of higher processing functions such as sensory integration, higher level olfactory processing, and spatial and associative learning and memory. these functions have been established through studies in a handful of tractable model systems, of which only the fruit fly drosophila melanogaster has been readily amenable to genetic manipulations. the red flour beetle tribolium castaneum has a sequenced genome and has been subject to the devel ... | 2008 | 18792069 |
| larval rnai in drosophila? | rna interference (rnai) has become a common method of gene knockdown in many model systems. to trigger an rnai response, double-stranded rna (dsrna) must enter the cell. in some organisms such as caenorhabditis elegans, cells can take up dsrna from the extracellular environment via a cellular uptake mechanism termed systemic rnai. however, in the fruit fly drosophila melanogaster, it is widely believed that cells are unable to take up dsrna, although there is little published data to support thi ... | 2008 | 18663472 |
| network evolution of body plans. | one of the major goals in evolutionary developmental biology is to understand the relationship between gene regulatory networks and the diverse morphologies and their functionalities. are the diversities solely triggered by random events, or are they inevitable outcomes of an interplay between evolving gene networks and natural selection? segmentation in arthropod embryogenesis represents a well-known example of body plan diversity. striped patterns of gene expression that lead to the future bod ... | 2008 | 18648662 |
| expression, function and regulation of brachyenteron in the short germband insect tribolium castaneum. | t-domain transcription factors are involved in many different processes during embryogenesis, such as mesoderm, heart or gut development in vertebrates and in invertebrates. in insects, the following five types of t-box genes are known: brachyenteron (byn), optomotor-blind (omb), optomotor-blind-related-gene-1 (org-1), dorsocross (doc) and h15. as all these classes are present in the genome of the fruit fly drosophila melanogaster and the flour beetle tribolium, the multiplicity of the five type ... | 2008 | 18392878 |
| from development to biodiversity--tribolium castaneum, an insect model organism for short germband development. | insect embryogenesis is best understood in the fruit fly drosophila. however, drosophila embryogenesis shows evolutionary-derived features: anterior patterning is controlled by a highly derived hox gene bicoid, the body segments form almost simultaneously and appendages develop from imaginal discs. in contrast, embryogenesis of the red flour beetle tribolium castaneum displays typical features in anterior patterning, axis and limb formation shared with most insects, other arthropods as well as w ... | 2008 | 18392874 |
| diverged and conserved aspects of heart formation in a spider. | heart development exhibits some striking similarities between vertebrates and arthropods, for example in both cases the heart develops as a linear tube from mesodermal cells. furthermore, the underlying molecular pathways exhibit a significant number of similarities between vertebrates and the fruit fly drosophila, suggesting a common origin of heart development in the last common ancestor of flies and vertebrates. however, there is hardly any molecular data from other animals. here we show that ... | 2008 | 18315809 |
| the evolution of developmental gene networks: lessons from comparative studies on holometabolous insects. | recent comparative studies have revealed significant differences in the developmental gene networks operating in three holometabolous insects: the beetle tribolium castaneum, the parasitic wasp nasonia vitripennis and the fruitfly drosophila melanogaster. i discuss these differences in relation to divergent and convergent changes in cellular embryology. i speculate on how segmentation gene networks have evolved to operate in divergent embryological contexts, and highlight the role that co-option ... | 2008 | 18192180 |
| genomic and gene regulatory signatures of cryptozoic adaptation: loss of blue sensitive photoreceptors through expansion of long wavelength-opsin expression in the red flour beetle tribolium castaneum. | recent genome sequence analysis in the red flour beetle tribolium castaneum indicated that this highly crepuscular animal encodes only two single opsin paralogs: a uv-opsin and a long wavelength (lw)-opsin; however, these animals do not encode a blue (b)-opsin as most other insects. here, we studied the spatial regulation of the tribolium single lw- and uv-opsin gene paralogs in comparison to that of the five opsin paralogs in the retina of drosophila melanogaster. | 2007 | 18154648 |
| organization and regulation of sex-specific thioredoxin encoding genes in the genus drosophila. | thioredoxins are small thiol proteins that have a conserved active site sequence, wcgpc, and reduce disulfide bonds in various proteins using the two active site cysteines, a reaction that oxidizes thioredoxin and renders it inactive. thioredoxin reductase returns thioredoxin to its reduced, active form in a reaction that converts nadph to nadp(+). the biological functions of thioredoxins vary widely; they have roles in oxidative stress protection, act as electron donors for ribonucleotide reduc ... | 2007 | 17701050 |
| wasps, beetles and the beginning of the ends. | recent papers investigating the genes regulating early embryogenesis in the wasp nasonia vitripennis and the beetle tribolium castaneum have provided us with important clues as to how early development is controlled in insects other than higher dipterans such as drosophila melanogaster. the results of these studies demonstrate that in insects that do not have bicoid, anterior patterning is regulated by a combination of maternal orthodenticle and hunchback. furthermore, during the evolution of lo ... | 2006 | 16850399 |
| the roles of wingless and decapentaplegic in axis and appendage development in the red flour beetle, tribolium castaneum. | axis patterning and appendage development have been well studied in drosophila melanogaster, a species in which both limb and segment morphogenesis are derived. in drosophila, positional information from genes important in anteroposterior and dorsoventral axis formation, including wingless (wg) and decapentaplegic (dpp), is required for allocating and patterning the appendage primordia. we used rna interference to characterize the functions of wg and dpp in the red flour beetle, tribolium castan ... | 2006 | 16616738 |
| ultrabithorax is required for membranous wing identity in the beetle tribolium castaneum. | the two pairs of wings that are characteristic of ancestral pterygotes (winged insects) have often undergone evolutionary modification. in the fruitfly, drosophila melanogaster, differences between the membranous forewings and the modified hindwings (halteres) depend on the hox gene ultrabithorax (ubx). the drosophila forewings develop without hox input, while ubx represses genes that are important for wing development, promoting haltere identity. however, the idea that hox input is important to ... | 2005 | 15703749 |
| tribolium castaneum twist: gastrulation and mesoderm formation in a short-germ beetle. | mesoderm formation has been extensively analyzed in the long-germ insect drosophila melanogaster. in drosophila, both the invagination and specification of the mesoderm is controlled by twist. here we present a detailed description of mesoderm formation and twist regulation for the short-germ beetle tribolium castaneum. in contrast to drosophila, (1) the presumptive mesodermal cells of tribolium are part of a mitotic domain and divide prior to ventral furrow formation, (2) ventral furrow formati ... | 2005 | 15645317 |
| patterning of the branched head appendages in schistocerca americana and tribolium castaneum. | much of our understanding of arthropod limb development comes from studies on the leg imaginal disc of drosophila melanogaster. the fly limb is a relatively simple unbranched (uniramous) structure extending out from the body wall. the molecular basis for this outgrowth involves the overlap of two signaling molecules, decapentaplegic (dpp) and wingless (wg), to create a single domain of distal outgrowth, clearly depicted by the expression of the distal-less gene (dll). the expression of wg and dp ... | 2004 | 15509222 |
| larval rnai in tribolium (coleoptera) for analyzing adult development. | we report here on the use of rna interference (rnai) to create pupal and adult loss-of-function phenotypes in the red flour beetle, tribolium castaneum, by injection of double-stranded rna (dsrna) into late instar larvae (we refer to this method as larval rnai). rnai is well-established as a useful method to mimic loss-of-function phenotypes in many organisms including insects. however, with a few exceptions (such as in the fruit fly drosophila melanogaster), rnai analysis has usually been limit ... | 2004 | 15365833 |
| evolution of insect eye development: first insights from fruit fly, grasshopper and flour beetle. | the molecular genetic dissection of drosophila eye development led to the exciting discovery of a surprisingly large panel of genes and gene activities, which are functionally conserved across phyla. little effort has yet been made towards pinpointing non-conserved gene functions in the developing drosophila eye. this neglects the fact that drosophila visual system development is a highly derived process. the comparative analysis of drosophila eye development within insects can be expected to en ... | 2003 | 21680459 |
| sequence and phylogenetic analysis of the complete mitochondrial genome of the flour beetle tribolium castanaeum. | we describe the first complete mitochondrial genome sequence from a representative of the insect order coleoptera, the flour beetle tribolium castaneum. the 15,881 bp long tribolium mitochondrial genome encodes 13 putative proteins, two ribosomal rnas and 22 trnas canonical for animal mitochondrial genomes. their arrangement is identical to that in drosophila melanogaster, which is considered ancestral for insects and crustaceans (boore et al., 1998; hwang, et al., 2001a). nucleotide composition ... | 2003 | 12644407 |
| proboscipedia represses distal signaling in the embryonic gnathal limb fields of tribolium castaneum. | orthologs of the hox genes sex combs reduced ( scr) and proboscipedia ( pd) are active in the developing labial appendages of all insect species tested. the remarkable variation among insect gnathal structures, particularly in the distal podomeres, suggests two hox genes may enhance the adaptive potential of gnathal appendage morphology. functional studies in the fruitfly drosophila melanogaster, the flour beetle tribolium castaneum and the milkweed bug oncopeltus fasciatus show that cooperation ... | 2003 | 12632174 |
| sequence of the tribolium castaneum homeotic complex: the region corresponding to the drosophila melanogaster antennapedia complex. | the homeotic selector genes of the red flour beetle, tribolium castaneum, are located in a single cluster. we have sequenced the region containing the homeotic selector genes required for proper development of the head and anterior thorax, which is the counterpart of the antc in drosophila. this 280-kb interval contains eight homeodomain-encoding genes, including single orthologs of the drosophila genes labial, proboscipedia, deformed, sex combs reduced, fushi tarazu, and antennapedia, as well a ... | 2002 | 11901122 |
| a molecular study of abdominal-a in the ant myrmica rubra reveals lineage dependent evolutionary rates for a developmental gene. | we have characterized the abdominal-a locus in a hymenopteran, the ant myrmica rubra. the sequence of the homeotic domain of the abdominal-a family of orthologous genes is known for a fairly large number of insects but the complete sequence of the abdominal-a protein, is known only for a few. the two proteins of drosophila melanogaster and tribolium castaneum differ markedly outside the homeodomain. a comparison of the ant abdominal-a protein sequences with those of these two insects shows that ... | 2001 | 11881816 |
| interactions of the tribolium sex combs reduced and proboscipedia orthologs in embryonic labial development. | the role of hox genes in the development of insect gnathal appendages has been examined in three insects: the fruitfly, drosophila melanogaster; the milkweed bug, oncopeltus fasciatus; and the red flour beetle, tribolium castaneum. in each of these organisms, the identity of the labium depends on the homeotic genes sex combs reduced (scr) and proboscipedia (pb). loss of pb function in each of the three insects results in homeotic transformation of the labial appendages to legs. in contrast, loss ... | 2001 | 11779803 |
| genetic transformation of the housefly musca domestica with the lepidopteran derived transposon piggybac. | the piggybac transposable element was successfully used for stable genetic transformation of the housefly musca domestica. the construct contains the egfp marker under the control of pax-6 binding sites, which can drive eye-specific expression in insect species as distantly related as drosophila melanogaster and tribolium castaneum [berghammer, a.j., klingler, m. and wimmer, e.a. (1999) nature 402: 370-371]. we obtained seven independent integration events among 41 fertile g0 musca flies. most o ... | 2001 | 11422506 |
| molecular characterization of cephalothorax, the tribolium ortholog of sex combs reduced. | sex combs reduced (scr), a hox gene located in the antennapedia complex of drosophila melanogaster, is required for the proper development of the labial and first thoracic segments. the tribolium castaneum genetically defined locus cephalothorax (cx) is a candidate scr ortholog based on the location of cx in the beetle homeotic complex and mutant effects on the labial and first thoracic segments. to address this hypothesis, we have cloned and characterized the tribolium ortholog of scr (tcscr). ... | 2001 | 11353513 |
| maxillopedia is the tribolium ortholog of proboscipedia. | null mutations in the drosophila melanogaster homeotic gene proboscipedia (pb) cause transformation of the adult labial palps to legs. the similar phenotype produced by mutations in the tribolium castaneum homeotic complex (homc) gene maxillopedia (mxp) has led to suggestions that the two genes may be orthologous. we have cloned the tribolium ortholog of pb, which predicts a protein with a homeodomain identical to that of drosophila pb. the two proteins also share several additional regions of i ... | 2007 | 11252570 |
| the short antennae gene of tribolium is required for limb development and encodes the orthologue of the drosophila distal-less protein. | insects bear a stereotyped set of limbs, or ventral body appendages. in the highly derived dipteran drosophila melanogaster, the homeodomain transcription factor encoded by the distal-less (dll) gene plays a major role in establishing distal limb structures. we have isolated the dll orthologue (tcdll) from the beetle tribolium castaneum, which, unlike drosophila, develops well-formed limbs during embryogenesis. tcdll is initially expressed at the sites of limb primordia formation in the young em ... | 2001 | 11124123 |
| the maternal nf-kappab/dorsal gradient of tribolium castaneum: dynamics of early dorsoventral patterning in a short-germ beetle. | in the long-germ insect drosophila melanogaster dorsoventral polarity is induced by localized toll-receptor activation which leads to the formation of a nuclear gradient of the rel/ nf-kappab protein dorsal. peak levels of nuclear dorsal are found in a ventral stripe spanning the entire length of the blastoderm embryo allowing all segments and their dorsoventral subdivisions to be synchronously specified before gastrulation. we show that a nuclear dorsal protein gradient of similar anteroposteri ... | 2000 | 11060240 |
| rnai analysis of deformed, proboscipedia and sex combs reduced in the milkweed bug oncopeltus fasciatus: novel roles for hox genes in the hemipteran head. | insects have evolved a large variety of specialized feeding strategies, with a corresponding variability in mouthpart morphology. we have, however, little understanding of the developmental mechanisms that underlie this diversity. until recently it was difficult to perform any analysis of gene function outside of the genetic model insects drosophila melanogaster and tribolium castaneum. in this paper, we report the use of dsrna-mediated interference (rnai) to dissect gene function in the develop ... | 2000 | 10934013 |
| implications of the tribolium deformed mutant phenotype for the evolution of hox gene function. | among insects, the genetic regulation of regional identities in the postoral head or gnathal segments (mandibular, maxillary, and labial) is best understood in the fly drosophila melanogaster. in part, normal gnathal development depends on deformed (dfd) and sex combs reduced (scr), genes in the split drosophila homeotic complex. the gnathal segments of dfd and scr mutant larvae are abnormal but not homeotically transformed. in the red flour beetle, tribolium castaneum, we have isolated loss-of- ... | 2000 | 10781053 |
| distinct roles of the homeotic genes ubx and abd-a in beetle embryonic abdominal appendage development. | insects are easily distinguishable by the absence of legs on the adult abdomen. studies performed on the dipteran, drosophila melanogaster, indicate that this is because of the repressive effects of the homeotic genes ultrabithorax (ubx) and abdominal-a (abd-a) on the limb promoting gene distal-less (dll) during embryonic development. however, in many species appendage-like structures are present on abdominal segments in embryonic and juvenile stages. here, by using classical genetics and double ... | 2000 | 10781052 |
| divergent decapentaplegic expression patterns in compound eye development and the evolution of insect metamorphosis. | in the fruit fly drosophila, the patterning genes decapentaplegic and wingless contribute to the spatial control of retina development in an antagonistic manner. we examined the expression patterns of these genes in the developing visual system of the hemimetabolous grasshopper schistocerca americana and the primitive holometabolous beetle species tribolium castaneum. the pattern of wingless expression was strongly conserved as a pair of lateral domains at the anterior margins of both the develo ... | 2000 | 10750052 |
| functional conservation of the wingless-engrailed interaction as shown by a widely applicable baculovirus misexpression system. | the expression patterns of the segment polarity genes wingless and engrailed are conserved during segmentation in a variety of arthropods, suggesting that the regulatory interactions between these two genes are also evolutionarily conserved. hypotheses derived from such comparisons of gene expression patterns are difficult to test experimentally as genetic manipulation is currently possible for only a few model organisms. | 1999 | 10574758 |
| high sequence turnover in the regulatory regions of the developmental gene hunchback in insects. | extensive sequence analysis of the developmental gene hunchback and its 5' and 3' regulatory regions in drosophila melanogaster, drosophila virilis, musca domestica, and tribolium castaneum, using a variety of computer algorithms, reveals regions of high sequence simplicity probably generated by slippage-like mechanisms of turnover. no regions are entirely refractory to the action of slippage, although the density and composition of simple sequence motifs varies from region to region. interestin ... | 1999 | 10028291 |
| the tribolium decapentaplegic gene is similar in sequence, structure, and expression to the drosophila dpp gene. | we are characterizing members of the transforming growth factor-β (tgf-β) superfamily in the red flour beetle, tribolium castaneum, in order to examine the evolutionary conservation of the structure and function of tgf-β-like genes during insect development. a decapentaplegic-like gene of the tgf-β superfamily was isolated in tribolium (tc dpp) that is similar in sequence, organization, and expression to the drosophila melanogaster dpp gene (dm dpp). conserved features include a high degree of s ... | 1996 | 24173563 |
| the early stages of ommatidial development in the flour beetle tribolium castaneum (coleoptera; tenebrionidae). | using electron microscopy, the first stages of ommatidial development in the flour beetle tribolium castaneum were analysed in relation to the cellular architecture of the adult compound eye and were compared to the corresponding patterning process in the fruit fly drosophila melanogaster. the ommatidia of the slightly horse-shoe shaped beetle compound eye contain six peripheral and two central retinula cells. the rhabdomere of the posteriorly located central photoreceptor cell is restricted to ... | 1996 | 24173466 |
| embryonic patterning mutants of tribolium castaneum. | the identification and analysis of genes controlling segmentation in drosophila melanogaster has opened the way for understanding similarities and differences in mechanisms of segmentation among the insects. homologues of drosophila segmentation genes have been cloned and their expression patterns have been analyzed in a variety of insects, revealing that the patterns of expression of many genes are conserved. conserved expression patterns do not, however, necessarily reflect conserved gene func ... | 1996 | 8631258 |
| the beetle tribolium castaneum has a fushi tarazu homolog expressed in stripes during segmentation. | the genetic control of embryonic organization is far better understood for the fruit fly drosophila melanogaster than for any other metazoan. a gene hierarchy acts during oogenesis and embryogenesis to regulate the establishment of segmentation along the anterior-posterior axis, and homeotic selector genes define developmental commitments within each parasegmental unit delineated. one of the most intensively studied drosophila segmentation genes is fushi tarazu (ftz), a pair-rule gene expressed ... | 1994 | 7809147 |
| insect gravitational biology: ground-based and shuttle flight experiments using the beetle tribolium castaneum. | many of the traditional experimental advantages of insects recommend their use in studies of gravitational and space biology. the fruit fly, drosophila melanogaster, is an obvious choice for studies of the developmental significance of gravity vectors because of the unparalleled description of regulatory mechanisms controlling oogenesis and embryogenesis. however, we demonstrate that drosophila could not survive the conditions mandated for particular flight opportunities on the space shuttle. wi ... | 1994 | 11536636 |
| conservation of wingless patterning functions in the short-germ embryos of tribolium castaneum. | during embryogenesis, all insects reach a conserved, or phylotypic, stage at which all future segments are present. different insects, however, arrive at this stage by overtly different pathways. in the long-germ insect drosophila melanogaster, segmentation of the entire embryo occurs nearly simultaneously and results from the action of a cascade of transcriptional regulatory factors that operate in the acellular environment of the syncytial blastoderm. in short-germ insects, segmentation occurs ... | 1994 | 8107804 |
| genetic control of early embryogenesis in the red flour beetle, tribolium castaneum. | the power of genetic analysis possible with the fruit fly, drosophila melanogaster, has yielded a detailed understanding of pattern formation controlled by homeotic and segmentation genes in early embryogenesis. we are studying the genetic regulation of embryogenesis in the red flour beetle, tribolium castaneum. the dynamic process of germ rudiment formation and sequential segmentation exhibited by tribolium provides a context different than drosophila within which to assess the function of home ... | 1994 | 11540629 |
| structure and function of the homeotic gene complex (hom-c) in the beetle, tribolium castaneum. | the powerful combination of genetic, developmental and molecular approaches possible with the fruit fly, drosophila melanogaster, has led to a profound understanding of the genetic control of early developmental events. however, drosophila is a highly specialized long germ insect, and the mechanisms controlling its early development may not be typical of insects or arthropods in general. the beetle, tribolium castaneum, offers a similar opportunity to integrate high resolution genetic analysis w ... | 1993 | 11536538 |
| insecticidal activity of ranunculus sceleratus (l.) against drosophila melanogaster and tribolium castaneum. | | 1993 | 8500821 |
| genetic analysis of the homeotic gene complex (hom-c) in the beetle tribolium castaneum. | our laboratories have undertaken both genetic and molecular studies of the homeotic gene complex (hom-c) of the beetle tribolium castaneum, and this paper discusses results from our genetic analyses. we describe here the adult phenotypes and complementation behavior of over 50 new mutations. many of these homeotic phenotypes resemble those of drosophila melanogaster, but few precisely parallel the segmental transformations seen in this fly. analysis of putative loss-of-function mutations affecti ... | 1989 | 2565268 |
| growth rate and longevity in drosophila melanogaster and tribolium castaneum. | | 1977 | 404569 |
| [relationship between growth rate and longevity in tribolium castaneum and drosophila melanogaster]. | in tribolium and drosophila preimaginal growth rate and imaginal life-span are directly, but inversely related: the lower the growth rate, the shorter the life-span in tribolium, the longer in drosophila. these conflicting results, which give ground to the developmental theory of ageing, may be due to the biology of the species and to the experimental approaches. | 1976 | 821629 |
| fumigant toxicity and oviposition deterrency of the essential oil from cardamom, elettaria cardamomum, against three stored–product insects. | use of insecticides can have disruptive effects on the environment. replacing the chemical compounds in these insecticides with plant materials, however, can be a safe method with low environmental risk. in the current study, chemical composition and insecticidal activities of the essential oil from cardamom, elettaria cardamomum l. (maton) (zingiberales: zingiberaceae) on the adults of three stored product pests was investigated. results indicated that essential oil of e. cardamomum toxic to th ... | 2011 | 22242564 |
| occurrence of nosema oryzaephili in cryptolestes ferrugineus and transfer to the genus paranosema. | a microsporidium that closely resembles paranosema species at the level of the light microscope was isolated from the rusty grain beetle, cryptolestes ferrugineus. it's identity as nosema oryzaephili (originally described from oryzaephilus surinamensis) was confirmed by comparison with a known isolate of n. oryzaephili based on spore size, small subunit rdna sequence, and relative infectivity to o. surinamensis, tribolium castaneum, and ephestia kuehniella. phylogenetic analysis of the small sub ... | 2010 | 20460127 |
| native fluorescence from juvenile stages of common food storage insects. | insect infestation of stored foods has significant economic and health consequences; the development of novel methods of detection thus presents considerable opportunities. the fluorescence from nine species of storage insects (beetles and moths) was studied; the juvenile stages of all nine species exhibited fluorescence under long-wave (365 nm) uv light; none of the adult insects emit fluorescence, so the fluorophore(s) might be a compound(s) associated with the unsclerotized cuticle. the spect ... | 2003 | 12537421 |
| a novel soxb2 gene is required for maturation of sperm nucleus during spermiogenesis in the chinese mitten crab, eriocheir sinensis. | sry-related hmg box (sox) genes are characterized by the presence of a dna-binding hmg domain and involved in a diverse range of developmental processes. in this study, we identified a novel sox gene, designated as essoxb2-1, from the chinese mitten crab eriocheir sinensis. the essoxb2-1 encodes a protein of 259 amino acids, sharing the highest identity with the beetle tribolium castaneum sox21b. unlike insect sox21b, however, essoxb2-1 is intronless and exhibits a gonad-specific expression patt ... | 2016 | 27561408 |
| insecticidal activity of scorpion toxin (butait) and snowdrop lectin (gna) containing fusion proteins towards pest species of different orders. | the toxicity of a fusion protein, butalt/gna, comprising a venom toxin (butait) derived from the red scorpion, mesobuthus tamulus (f.), and galanthus nivalis agglutinin (gna), was evaluated under laboratory conditions against several pest insects. insecticidal activity was compared with sfi1/gna, a fusion comprising a venom toxin (sfi1) derived from the european spider segestria florentina (rossi) and gna, which has been previously demonstrated to be effective against lepidopteran and hemipteran ... | 2010 | 19728320 |
| the role of epigenetics in host-parasite coevolution: lessons from the model host insects galleria mellonella and tribolium castaneum. | recent studies addressing experimental host-parasite coevolution and transgenerational immune priming in insects provide evidence for heritable shifts in host resistance or parasite virulence. these rapid reciprocal adaptations may thus be transferred to offspring generations by either genetic changes or mechanisms that do not involve changes in the germline dna sequence. epigenetic inheritance refers to changes in gene expression that are heritable across generations and mediated by epigenetic ... | 2016 | 27341739 |
| first record of gregarines (apicomplexa) in seminal vesicle of insect. | gregarines (apicomplexa) are a diverse group of protozoan parasites, which infects gut and other body cavities of invertebrate hosts. in reproductive system of insects, gregarine has been reported only in the accessory glands and spermathecae of females; therefore, this is the first report of a gregarine species in seminal vesicles of insects. different developmental stages, including sporozoytes, oocysts and trophozoites were described from morphological descriptions using light and electron tr ... | 2017 | 28282967 |
| dynamics of extinction in coupled populations of the flour beetle tribolium castaneum. | in this study we analyzed the effect of migration on the persistence time of coupled local populations of tribolium in different environments. four treatments were set up to compare different levels of environmental heterogeneity. we established high, low, moderate, and no heterogeneity. these levels were estimated by the different amounts of food offered to each population. to investigate how risk spreading works, a stochastic model for two subpopulations was employed. the high heterogeneity tr ... | 2005 | 16097729 |
| the sp8 zinc-finger transcription factor is involved in allometric growth of the limbs in the beetle tribolium castaneum. | members of the sp gene family are involved in a variety of developmental processes in both vertebrates and invertebrates. we identified the ortholog of the drosophila sp-1 gene in the red flour beetle tribolium castaneum, termed t-sp8 because of its close phylogenetic relationship to the vertebrate sp8 genes. during early embryogenesis, t-sp8 is seen in segmental stripes. during later stages, tsp8 is dynamically expressed in the limb buds of the tribolium embryo. at the beginning of bud formatio ... | 2004 | 14724124 |
| gregarina triboliorum (eugregarinida: gregarinidae) n. sp. from tribolium confusum and resolution of the confused taxonomic history of gregarina minuta ishii, 1914. | the septate gregarine parasites of flour beetles (tribolium spp.) include gregarina minuta ishii, 1914, a relatively small species in which both primite and satellite possess an obvious protomerite, and a larger species that lacks the satellite protomerite. the latter species has been placed in the genera didymophyes and hirmocystis by various authors, but studies reported here demonstrate that this species, herein described as gregarina triboliorum, exhibits early pairing and produces oocyst ch ... | 1997 | 9194834 |