The homeotic selector genes of the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum, are located in a single cluster. We have sequenced the region containing the homeotic selector genes required for proper development of the head and anterior thorax, which is the counterpart of the ANTC in Drosophila. This 280-kb interval contains eight homeodomain-encoding genes, including single orthologs of the Drosoph...

To infer similarities and differences in terminal pattern formation in insects, we analyzed several of the key genes of this process in the beetle Tribolium castaneum. We cloned two genes of the terminal pattern cascade, namely tailless (tll) and forkhead (fkh), from Tribolium and studied their expression patterns. In addition, we analyzed the pattern of MAP kinase activation at blastoderm stag...

BACKGROUND Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are evolutionarily conserved and multifunctional effector molecules in development and homeostasis. In spite of previous, intensive investigation in vitro and in cell culture, their pleiotrophic functions in vivo are still not well understood. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We show that the genetically amenable beetle Tribolium castaneum represents ...

In Drosophila, a hierarchy of maternal, gap, pair-rule, and segment polarity gene interactions regulates virtually simultaneous blastoderm segmentation. For the last decade, studies have focused on revealing the extent to which Drosophila segmentation mechanisms are conserved in other arthropods where segments are added sequentially from anterior to posterior in a cellular environment. Despite ...

The gene regulatory network controlling dorsoventral axis formation in insects has undergone drastic evolutionary changes. In Drosophila, a stable long-range gradient of Toll signalling specifies ventral cell fates and restricts BMP signalling to the dorsal half of the embryo. In Tribolium, however, Toll signalling is transient and only indirectly controls BMP signalling. In order to gain unbia...

The insect mushroom bodies play important roles in a number of higher processing functions such as sensory integration, higher level olfactory processing, and spatial and associative learning and memory. These functions have been established through studies in a handful of tractable model systems, of which only the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has been readily amenable to genetic manipulat...

A genome's ability to produce two separate sexually dimorphic phenotypes is an intriguing biological mystery. Microarray-based studies of a handful of model systems suggest that much of the mystery can be explained by sex-biased gene expression evolved in response to sexually antagonistic selection. We present the first whole-genome study of sex-biased expression in the red flour beetle, Tribol...

Threeand 4-week-old Tribolium castaneum (Herbst), the red flour beetle, and Tribolium confusum (du Val), the confused flour beetle, were exposed at five different temperature–relative humidity (r.h.) combinations to a volatile formulation of the insect growth regulator (IGR) hydroprene (called Pointsourcet). Typical effects associated with IGR exposure, such as arrested larval growth, morpholog...

Sex combs reduced (Scr), a Hox gene located in the Antennapedia complex of Drosophila melanogaster, is required for the proper development of the labial and first thoracic segments. The Tribolium castaneum genetically defined locus Cephalothorax (Cx) is a candidate Scr ortholog based on the location of Cx in the beetle Homeotic complex and mutant effects on the labial and first thoracic segment...

As the complexity of animal nervous systems has increased during evolution, developmental control of neuronal connectivity has become increasingly refined. How has functional diversification within related axon guidance molecules contributed to the evolution of nervous systems? To address this question, we explore the evolution of functional diversity within the Roundabout (Robo) family of axon...