Journal Article

A complex gene regulatory architecture underlies the development and evolution of cuticle morphology in Drosophila

Abstract

The cuticle of insects is decorated with non-sensory hairs called trichomes. A few Drosophila species independently lost most of the dorso-lateral trichomes on first instar larvae. Genetic experiments revealed that this naked cuticle phenotype was caused by the evolution of enhancer function at the ovo/shavenbaby (ovo/svb) locus. Here we explore how this discovery catalyzed major new insights into morphological evolution in different developmental contexts, enhancer pleiotropy in gene regulation and the functionality and evolution of the Svb gene regulatory network (GRN). Taken together this highlights the importance of understanding the architecture and evolution of gene regulatory networks in detail and the great potential for further study of the Svb GRN.

Attached files

Authors

Kittelmann, Sebastian
Preger-Ben Noon, Ella
McGregor, Alistair P.
Frankel, Nicolás

Oxford Brookes departments

Department of Biological and Medical Sciences

Dates

Year of publication: 2021
Date of RADAR deposit: 2021-03-23

---

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License

---

Related resources

This RADAR resource is the Accepted Manuscript of A complex gene regulatory architecture underlies the development and evolution of cuticle morphology in Drosophila