Modifications of cis-regulatory DNAs, particularly enhancers, underlie changes in gene expression during animal evolution. Here, we present evidence for a distinct mechanism of regulatory evolution, whereby a novel pattern of gene expression arises from altered gene targeting of a conserved enhancer. The tinman gene complex (Tin-C) controls the patterning of dorsal mesodermal tissues, including...

Drosophila undergoes a form of development termed long germ segmentation, where all segments are specified nearly simultaneously so that by the blastoderm stage, the entire body plan has been determined. This mode of segmentation is evolutionarily derived. Most insects undergo short or intermediate germ segmentation, where only anterior segments are specified early, and posterior segments are s...

11 Long-germ insects, such as the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, pattern their segments 12 simultaneously, whereas short germ insects, such as the beetle Tribolium castaneum, pattern 13 their segments sequentially, from anterior to posterior. While the two modes of segmentation 14 at first appear to be very different, many details of segmentation gene expression are 15 surprisingly similar ...

The spectra of Tribolium castaneum and T. confusum larval digestive peptidases were characterized with respect to the spatial organization of protein digestion in the midgut. The pH of midgut contents in both species increased from 5.6-6.0 in the anterior to 7.0-7.5 in the posterior midgut. However, the pH optimum of the total proteolytic activity of the gut extract from either insect was pH 4....

The first complete sequence of an insect genome was reported less than a decade ago (Adams et al. 2000). Fittingly, this was the genome of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, a premier model organism for genetical and molecular studies of biological processes. Since then, the number of insect species for which genome sequencing efforts have been completed or are underway has grown substantia...

The rel/NF-kappaB transcription factor Dorsal controls dorsoventral (DV) axis formation in Drosophila. A stable nuclear gradient of Dorsal directly regulates approximately 50 target genes. In Tribolium castaneum (Tc), a beetle with an ancestral type of embryogenesis, the Dorsal nuclear gradient is not stable, but rapidly shrinks and disappears. We find that negative feedback accounts for this d...

Enterococcus mundtii strains isolated from the larval feces of the Mediterranean flour moth Ephestia kuehniella show antimicrobial activity against a broad spectrum of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The in vitro probiotic characterization of one isolate revealed a high auto-aggregation score, a hydrophilic cell surface, tolerance for low pH, no hemolytic activity, and susceptibility ...

The red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum, is a major agricultural pest responsible for considerable loss of stored grain and cereal products worldwide. T. castaneum larvae have a highly compartmentalized gut, with cysteine peptidases mostly in the acidic anterior part of the midgut that are critical to the early stages of food digestion. In previous studies, we described 26 putative cysteine p...

Beetles are reckoned to make up about one quarter of animal species. Now, the first genome of a beetle--the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum, a pest and developmental model system alike--has been sequenced.

Sexual selection is a major force driving the evolution of diverse reproductive traits. This evolutionary process is based on individual reproductive advantages that arise either through intrasexual competition or through intersexual choice and conflict. While classical studies of sexual selection focused mainly on differences in male mating success, more recent work has focused on the differen...