Probing the Drosophila retinal determination gene network in Tribolium ( II): The Pax6 genes eyeless and twin of eyeless
The Pax6 genes eyeless ( ey) and twin of eyeless ( toy) are upstream regulators in the retinal determination gene network (RDGN), which instructs the formation of the adult eye primordium in Drosophila. Most animals possess a singleton Pax6 ortholog, but the dependence of eye development on Pax6 is...
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Veröffentlicht in: | Developmental biology 2009-09, Vol.333 (1), p.215-227 |
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Sprache: | eng |
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Zusammenfassung: | The
Pax6 genes
eyeless (
ey) and
twin of eyeless (
toy) are upstream regulators in the retinal determination gene network (RDGN), which instructs the formation of the adult eye primordium in
Drosophila. Most animals possess a singleton
Pax6 ortholog, but the dependence of eye development on
Pax6 is widely conserved. A rare exception is given by the larval eyes of
Drosophila, which develop independently of
ey and
toy. To obtain insight into the origin of differential larval and adult eye regulation, we studied the function of
toy and
ey in the red flour beetle
Tribolium castaneum. We find that single and combinatorial knockdown of
toy and
ey affect larval eye development strongly but adult eye development only mildly in this primitive hemimetabolous species. Compound eye-loss, however, was provoked when
ey and
toy were RNAi-silenced in combination with the early retinal gene
dachshund (
dac). We propose that these data reflect a role of
Pax6 during regional specification in the developing head and that the subsequent maintenance and growth of the adult eye primordium is regulated partly by redundant and partly by specific functions of
toy,
ey and
dac in
Tribolium. The results from embryonic knockdown and comparative protein sequence analysis lead us further to conclude that
Tribolium represents an ancestral state of redundant control by
ey and
toy. |
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ISSN: | 0012-1606 1095-564X |
DOI: | 10.1016/j.ydbio.2009.06.013 |