Genetic Regulation of Early Eye Development in Non-dipteran Insects

Friedrich, Markus; Dong, Ying; Liu, Zhenyi; Yang, Iris

doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-8232-1_11

Cited by 1 publication

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“…1A–A″). While structurally very diverse, comparative evidence leads to the conclusion that the CE, OC, and BO descended from a single precursor visual organ present in an ancient invertebrate lineage that predated the diversification of arthropods (Friedrich, 2006 and Friedrich et al, 2013). Their shared evolutionary history is reflected in the common use of many signaling molecules and transcription factors during development, from the time of primordium specification through to the terminal differentiation stage (Friedrich, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distinct regulation of atonal in a visual organ of Drosophila : Organ-specific enhancer and lack of autoregulation in the larval eye

Zhou

Friedrich

et al. 2017

Developmental Biology

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Drosophila has three types of visual organs, the larval eyes or Bolwig’s organs (BO), the ocelli (OC) and the compound eyes (CE). In all, the bHLH protein Atonal (Ato) functions as the proneural factor for photoreceptors and effects the transition from progenitor cells to differentiating neurons. In this work, we investigate the regulation of ato expression in the BO primordium (BOP). Surprisingly, we find that ato transcription in the BOP is entirely independent of the shared regulatory DNA for the developing CE and OC. The core enhancer for BOP expression, atoBO, lies ~6 kb upstream of the ato gene, in contrast to the downstream location of CE and OC regulatory elements. Moreover, maintenance of ato expression in the neuronal precursors through autoregulation-a common and ancient feature of ato expression that is well-documented in eyes, ocelli and chordotonal organs-does not occur in the BO. We also show that the atoBO enhancer contains two binding sites for the transcription factor Sine oculis (So), a core component of the progenitor specification network in all three visual organs. These binding sites function in vivo and are specifically bound by So in vitro. Taken together, our findings reveal that the control of ato transcription in the evolutionarily derived BO has diverged considerably from ato regulation in the more ancestral compound eyes and ocelli, to the extent of acquiring what appears to be a distinct and evolutionarily novel cis-regulatory module.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%