Cleft palate is one of the most common birth defects in humans. Whereas gene knockout studies in mice have shown that both the Osr2 and Pax9 transcription factors are essential regulators of palatogenesis, little is known about the molecular mechanisms involving these transcription factors in palate development. We report here that Pax9 plays a crucial role in patterning the anterior-posterior axis and outgrowth of the developing palatal shelves. We found that tissue-specific deletion of Pax9 in the palatal mesenchyme affected Shh expression in palatal epithelial cells, indicating that Pax9 plays a crucial role in the mesenchyme-epithelium interactions during palate development. We found that expression of the Bmp4, Fgf10, Msx1 and Osr2 genes is significantly downregulated in the developing palatal mesenchyme in Pax9 mutant embryos. Remarkably, restoration of Osr2 expression in the early palatal mesenchyme through a Pax9Osr2KI allele rescued posterior palate morphogenesis in the absence of Pax9 protein function. Our data indicate that Pax9 regulates a molecular network involving the Bmp4, Fgf10, Shh and Osr2 pathways to control palatal shelf patterning and morphogenesis.

Previous studies have suggested that Bmp4 is a key Msx1-dependent mesenchymal odontogenic signal for driving tooth morphogenesis through the bud-to-cap transition. Whereas all tooth germs were arrested at the bud stage in Msx1–/– mice, we show that depleting functional Bmp4 mRNAs in the tooth mesenchyme, through neural crest-specific gene inactivation in Bmp4f/f;Wnt1Cre mice, caused mandibular molar developmental arrest at the bud stage but allowed maxillary molars and incisors to develop to mineralized teeth. We found that expression of Osr2, which encodes a zinc finger protein that antagonizes Msx1-mediated activation of odontogenic mesenchyme, was significantly upregulated in the molar tooth mesenchyme in Bmp4f/f;Wnt1Cre embryos. Msx1 heterozygosity enhanced maxillary molar developmental defects whereas Osr2 heterozygosity partially rescued mandibular first molar morphogenesis in Bmp4f/f;Wnt1Cre mice. Moreover, in contrast to complete lack of supernumerary tooth initiation in Msx1–/–Osr2–/– mice, Osr2–/–Bmp4f/f;Wnt1Cre compound mutant mice exhibited formation and subsequent arrest of supernumerary tooth germs that correlated with downregulation of Msx1 expression in the tooth mesenchyme. In addition, we found that the Wnt inhibitors Dkk2 and Wif1 were much more abundantly expressed in the mandibular than maxillary molar mesenchyme in wild-type embryos and that Dkk2 expression was significantly upregulated in the molar mesenchyme in Bmp4f/f;Wnt1Cre embryos, which correlated with the dramatic differences in maxillary and mandibular molar phenotypes in Bmp4f/f;Wnt1Cre mice. Together, these data indicate that Bmp4 signaling suppresses tooth developmental inhibitors in the tooth mesenchyme, including Dkk2 and Osr2, and synergizes with Msx1 to activate mesenchymal odontogenic potential for tooth morphogenesis and sequential tooth formation.

We compared the bacterial communities in the larval midgut of field and laboratory populations of a polyphagous pest, the cotton bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera), using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of amplified 16S rDNA sequences and 16S library sequence analysis. DGGE profiles and 16S rDNA library sequence analysis indicated similar patterns of midgut microbial community structure and diversity: specific bacterial types existed in both populations, and a more diverse microbial community was observed in caterpillars obtained from the field. The laboratory population harbored a rather simple gut microflora consisting mostly of phylotypes belonging to Enterococcus (84%). For the field population, phylotypes belonging to Enterococcus (28%) and Lactococcus (11%), as well as Flavobacterium (10%), Acinetobacter (19%), and Stenotrophomonas (10%) were dominant members. These results provided the first comprehensive description of the microbial diversity of the midgut of the important pest cotton bollworm and suggested that the environment and food supply might influence the diversity of the gut bacterial community.

We established a genetic linkage map employing 518 simple sequence repeat (SSR, or microsatellite) markers for Bombyx mori (silkworm), the economically and culturally important lepidopteran insect, as part of an international genomics program. A survey of six representative silkworm strains using 2,500 (CA)nand (CT)n-based SSR markers revealed 17-24% polymorphism, indicating a high degree of homozygosity resulting from a long history of inbreeding. Twenty-nine SSR linkage groups were established in well characterized Dazao and C108 strains based on genotyping of 189 backcross progeny derived from an F1 male mated with a C108 female. The clustering was further focused to 28 groups by genotyping 22 backcross progeny derived from an F1 female mated with a C108 male. This set of SSR linkage groups was further assigned to the 28 chromosomes (established linkage groups) of silkworm aided by visible mutations and cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence markers developed from previously mapped genes, cDNA sequences, and cloned random amplified polymorphic DNAs. By integrating a visible mutation p (plain, larval marking) and 29 well conserved genes of insects onto this SSRbased linkage map, a second generation consensus silkworm genetic map with a range of 7-40 markers per linkage group and a total map length of Ϸ3431.9 cM was constructed and its high efficiency for genotyping and potential application for synteny studies of Lepidoptera and other insects was demonstrated.silkworm ͉ microsatellite