Temporal and spatial expression of the yellow gene in correlation with cuticle formation and DOPA decarboxylase activity in drosophila development

Walter, Marika F.; Black, Bruce C.; Afshar, Golnar; Kermabon, A.Y.; Wright, Theodore R. F.; Biessmann, Harald

doi:10.1016/s0012-1606(05)80005-3

Cited by 105 publications

(85 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Yellow is also expressed in the male-specific spot region in late pupal D. elegans and other spot-bearing melanogaster group species (Kopp and True, 2002a;Wittkopp et al, 2002;Gompel et al, 2005). Yellow is an extracellular protein thought to function specifically in the dopa melanin pathway, either by sequestering secreted dopa or by functioning in one of the enzymatic steps during oxidative polymerization of dopa to melanin (Walter et al, 1991;Wittkopp et al, 2002). Ectopic y expression promotes novel melanin pattern formation in e mutant backgrounds (Wittkopp et al, 2002), which is one possible mechanism by which novel melanin patterns could evolve (True, 2003).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetics of divergence in male wing pigmentation and courtship behavior between Drosophila elegans and D. gunungcola

2006

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Many sex-specific traits involved in mating consist of functionally coordinated morphologies and behaviors. How the components of these complex traits evolve and become coordinated during evolution is unknown. In order to understand how such trait complexes evolve and diversify, we must decipher the genetic underpinnings of their components. In this study, we begin to elucidate the genetic architecture underlying differences in functionally related male pigmentation and behavior between two Asian Drosophila melanogaster group species, D. elegans and D. gunungcola. D. elegans possesses a male-specific wing melanin spot and a stereotypical wing display element in male courtship, whereas D. gunungcola lacks both of these traits. Using reciprocal F1 male hybrids, we demonstrate that the X-chromosome contains a major locus or loci required for wing spot formation and that autosomal loci largely determine the male courtship display. Using phenotypic and genetic analysis of backcross progeny, we further demonstrate that both the wing spot and courtship differences between the two species are polygenic and both depend at least in small part on genetic factors on both the X and the autosomes. Finally, we find that male wing spot size and courtship wing display are highly correlated in backcross progeny, suggesting that linkage or pleiotropy may have been involved in their coordinated evolution.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetics of divergence in male wing pigmentation and courtship behavior between Drosophila elegans and D. gunungcola

2006

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“…The difference in pigmentation patterns is reflected by differences in pigmentation gene expression. In particular, the product of the yellow (y) gene, which is critical for the production of black pigment (37), is expressed uniformly at low levels in the developing wing blade in unspotted species and in spotted species; it is also expressed at high levels where the spot will appear.…”

Section: Pigmentation Patterns and Gene Expression As Models Of Regulmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emerging principles of regulatory evolution

Prud’homme

Gompel

Carroll

2007

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

490

437

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Understanding the genetic and molecular mechanisms governing the evolution of morphology is a major challenge in biology. Because most animals share a conserved repertoire of body-building and -patterning genes, morphological diversity appears to evolve primarily through changes in the deployment of these genes during development. The complex expression patterns of developmentally regulated genes are typically controlled by numerous independent cis-regulatory elements (CREs). It has been proposed that morphological evolution relies predominantly on changes in the architecture of gene regulatory networks and in particular on functional changes within CREs. Here, we discuss recent experimental studies that support this hypothesis and reveal some unanticipated features of how regulatory evolution occurs. From this growing body of evidence, we identify three key operating principles underlying regulatory evolution, that is, how regulatory evolution: (i) uses available genetic components in the form of preexisting and active transcription factors and CREs to generate novelty; (ii) minimizes the penalty to overall fitness by introducing discrete changes in gene expression; and (iii) allows interactions to arise among any transcription factor and downstream CRE. These principles endow regulatory evolution with a vast creative potential that accounts for both relatively modest morphological differences among closely related species and more profound anatomical divergences among groups at higher taxonomical levels.pleiotropy ͉ cis-regulation ͉ transcription ͉ pigmentation ͉ body plan

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“…The same transcription factors are expressed in eyespot fields, but in different relative spatial domains, suggesting that they correlate with divergent eyespot color schemes (13). Among different Drosophila species, the divergent expression of the yellow gene correlates with the distribution of black melanin, but other genes are also involved in epistatic interactions to generate the evolutionary variations observed in Yellow expression (14)(15)(16)(17). The known candidate genes are generally conserved among insects and are responsible for pigmentation diversity in other insect lineages (6).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Repression of tyrosine hydroxylase is responsible for the sex-linked chocolate mutation of the silkworm, Bombyx mori

Lei

Yamamoto

Cheng

et al. 2010

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Pigmentation patterning has long interested biologists, integrating topics in ecology, development, genetics, and physiology. Wild-type neonatal larvae of the silkworm, Bombyx mori , are completely black. By contrast, the epidermis and head of larvae of the homozygous recessive sex-linked chocolate ( sch ) mutant are reddish brown. When incubated at 30 °C, mutants with the sch allele fail to hatch; moreover, homozygous mutants carrying the allele sch lethal ( sch l ) do not hatch even at room temperature (25 °C). By positional cloning, we narrowed a region containing sch to 239,622 bp on chromosome 1 using 4,501 backcross (BC1) individuals. Based on expression analyses, the best sch candidate gene was shown to be tyrosine hydroxylase ( BmTh ). BmTh coding sequences were identical among sch , sch l , and wild-type. However, in sch the ∼70-kb sequence was replaced with ∼4.6 kb of a Tc1-mariner type transposon located ∼6 kb upstream of BmTh , and in sch l , a large fragment of an L1Bm retrotransposon was inserted just in front of the transcription start site of BmTh . In both cases, we observed a drastic reduction of BmTh expression. Use of RNAi with BmTh prevented pigmentation and hatching, and feeding of a tyrosine hydroxylase inhibitor also suppressed larval pigmentation in the wild-type strain, pnd + and in a pS (black-striped) heterozygote. Feeding L-dopa to sch neonate larvae rescued the mutant phenotype from chocolate to black. Our results indicate the BmTh gene is responsible for the sch mutation, which plays an important role in melanin synthesis producing neonatal larval color.

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Temporal and spatial expression of the yellow gene in correlation with cuticle formation and DOPA decarboxylase activity in drosophila development

Cited by 105 publications

References 41 publications

Genetics of divergence in male wing pigmentation and courtship behavior between Drosophila elegans and D. gunungcola

Genetics of divergence in male wing pigmentation and courtship behavior between Drosophila elegans and D. gunungcola

Emerging principles of regulatory evolution

Repression of tyrosine hydroxylase is responsible for the sex-linked chocolate mutation of the silkworm, Bombyx mori

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