Wingless signaling in a large insect, the blowfly Lucilia sericata: A beautiful example of evolutionary developmental biology
Mellenthin, Katja LU ; Fahmy, Khalid LU ; Ali, Reda LU ; Hunding, A ; Da Rocha Baez, Sol LU and Baumgartner, Stefan LU
(2006)
In Developmental Dynamics
235(2).
p.347-360
- Abstract
- Blowflies are the primary facultative agent in causing myiasis of domestic sheep in the whole world and, at the same time, it is an important tool for forensic medicine. Surprisingly, and in contrast to its importance, almost no data regarding the embryology and molecular markers are known for this insect. In this report, we present a detailed description of the blowfly Lucilia sericata embryogenesis and of imaginal disc development. The embryogenesis of Lucilia strongly resembles that of Drosophila, despite their apparent size difference. Moreover, imaginal disc development appears to be equally well conserved. Through cloning, expression, and functional studies, we show that the Lucilia Wingless (Wg) protein is highly conserved between... (More)
- Blowflies are the primary facultative agent in causing myiasis of domestic sheep in the whole world and, at the same time, it is an important tool for forensic medicine. Surprisingly, and in contrast to its importance, almost no data regarding the embryology and molecular markers are known for this insect. In this report, we present a detailed description of the blowfly Lucilia sericata embryogenesis and of imaginal disc development. The embryogenesis of Lucilia strongly resembles that of Drosophila, despite their apparent size difference. Moreover, imaginal disc development appears to be equally well conserved. Through cloning, expression, and functional studies, we show that the Lucilia Wingless (Wg) protein is highly conserved between the two species. We further show that parasegments are established in Lucilia, however, engrailed expression shows a more dynamic expression pattern than expected in comparison to Drosophila. Over-expression of Lucilia Wingless in Drosophila shows wingless-like wing phenotypes, suggesting that Lucilia Wingless blocks the signalling activity of Drosophila Wingless. Upon injection of wg dsRNA, we observe a "lawn of denticle" phenotype, closely resembling that of Drosophila. Due to the large size of the insect, the distance over which Wingless exerts signalling activity is up to three times larger than in Drosophila, yet the consequences are very similar. Our data demonstrate long-range wingless signaling mechanisms adapted for patterning large domains of naked cuticle and suggest signaling properties of Lucilia Wingless that are distinct from those of Drosophila Wingless. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/419901
- author
- Mellenthin, Katja
LU
; Fahmy, Khalid
LU
; Ali, Reda
LU
; Hunding, A
; Da Rocha Baez, Sol
LU
and Baumgartner, Stefan
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2006
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- wingless, long-range patterning, Lucilia sericata, parasegments
- in
- Developmental Dynamics
- volume
- 235
- issue
- 2
- pages
- 347 - 360
- publisher
- John Wiley & Sons Inc.
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:16258966
- wos:000234672400006
- scopus:30744437176
- pmid:16258966
- ISSN
- 1097-0177
- DOI
- 10.1002/dvdy.20632
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 37ceba4d-8128-44bb-889d-8afae8713331 (old id 419901)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 12:01:32
- date last changed
- 2022-02-03 08:30:31
@article{37ceba4d-8128-44bb-889d-8afae8713331,
abstract = {{Blowflies are the primary facultative agent in causing myiasis of domestic sheep in the whole world and, at the same time, it is an important tool for forensic medicine. Surprisingly, and in contrast to its importance, almost no data regarding the embryology and molecular markers are known for this insect. In this report, we present a detailed description of the blowfly Lucilia sericata embryogenesis and of imaginal disc development. The embryogenesis of Lucilia strongly resembles that of Drosophila, despite their apparent size difference. Moreover, imaginal disc development appears to be equally well conserved. Through cloning, expression, and functional studies, we show that the Lucilia Wingless (Wg) protein is highly conserved between the two species. We further show that parasegments are established in Lucilia, however, engrailed expression shows a more dynamic expression pattern than expected in comparison to Drosophila. Over-expression of Lucilia Wingless in Drosophila shows wingless-like wing phenotypes, suggesting that Lucilia Wingless blocks the signalling activity of Drosophila Wingless. Upon injection of wg dsRNA, we observe a "lawn of denticle" phenotype, closely resembling that of Drosophila. Due to the large size of the insect, the distance over which Wingless exerts signalling activity is up to three times larger than in Drosophila, yet the consequences are very similar. Our data demonstrate long-range wingless signaling mechanisms adapted for patterning large domains of naked cuticle and suggest signaling properties of Lucilia Wingless that are distinct from those of Drosophila Wingless.}},
author = {{Mellenthin, Katja and Fahmy, Khalid and Ali, Reda and Hunding, A and Da Rocha Baez, Sol and Baumgartner, Stefan}},
issn = {{1097-0177}},
keywords = {{wingless; long-range patterning; Lucilia sericata; parasegments}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{2}},
pages = {{347--360}},
publisher = {{John Wiley & Sons Inc.}},
series = {{Developmental Dynamics}},
title = {{Wingless signaling in a large insect, the blowfly Lucilia sericata: A beautiful example of evolutionary developmental biology}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/dvdy.20632}},
doi = {{10.1002/dvdy.20632}},
volume = {{235}},
year = {{2006}},
}