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Toward new Drosophila paradigms
Author(s) -
Andrioli Luiz Paulo
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
genesis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.093
H-Index - 110
eISSN - 1526-968X
pISSN - 1526-954X
DOI - 10.1002/dvg.22019
Subject(s) - drosophila (subgenus) , biology , drosophila melanogaster , evolutionary biology , body plan , segmentation , focus (optics) , insect , perspective (graphical) , computational biology , gene , genetics , ecology , computer science , artificial intelligence , physics , optics
The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is a great model system in developmental biology studies and related disciplines. In a historical perspective, I focus on the formation of the Drosophila segmental body plan using a comparative approach. I highlight the evolutionary trend of increasing complexity of the molecular segmentation network in arthropods that resulted in an incredible degree of complexity at the gap gene level in derived Diptera. There is growing evidence that Drosophila is a highly derived insect, and we are still far from fully understanding the underlying evolutionary mechanisms that led to its complexity. In addition, recent data have altered how we view the transcriptional regulatory mechanisms that control segmentation in Drosophila . However, these observations are not all bad news for the field. Instead, they stimulate further study of segmentation in Drosophila and in other species as well. To me, these seemingly new Drosophila paradigms are very challenging ones. genesis 50:585–598, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.