| Popis: |
A million of insect species have been identified so far, displaying a staggering variety of adult morphologies. To elucidate mechanism how such insect morphologies are developed at a molecular level, we investigated developmental process of the two-spotted cricket, Gryllus bimaculatus, as a typical hemimetabola, and compared with that of Drosophila as an extensively studied typical holometabola. We analyzed expression patterns of homeobox genes of engrailed (en) and Distal-less (Dll) during development. In early embryos, en is expressed in the posterior compartments of body segments and developing appendages, while Dll is expressed in the distal region corresponding to the telopodite of developing appendages. Interestingly, these expression patterns are very similar to those observed in Drosophila imaginal discs. In the case of Dll, we found that its expression pattern, which is similar to each other in various appendages at early stages, changes in progress with elongation and segmentation, depe... |
