Hox genes and the evolution of the arthropod body plan1

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Use of dsRNA-mediated genetic interference to demonstrate that frizzled and frizzled 2 act in the wingless pathway.

Jason Kennerdell, Richard W. Carthew (1998)

We investigated the potential of double-stranded RNA to interfere with the function of genes in Drosophila. Injection of dsRNA into embryos resulted in potent and specific interference of several genes that were tested. In contrast, single-stranded RNA weakly interfered with gene activity. The method was used to determine the reception mechanism of the morphogen Wingless. Interference of the frizzled and Drosophila frizzled 2 genes together produced defects in embryonic patterning that mimic loss of wingless function. Interference of either gene alone had no effect on patterning. Epistasis analysis indicates that frizzled and Drosophila frizzled 2 act downstream of wingless and upstream of zeste-white3 in the Wingless pathway. Our results demonstrate that dsRNA interference can be used to analyze many aspects of gene function.

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Homeotic genes and the evolution of arthropods and chordates.

Darin Carroll (1995)

Clusters of homeotic genes sculpt the morphology of animal body plans and body parts. Different body patterns may evolve through changes in homeotic gene number, regulation or function. Recent evidence suggests that homeotic gene clusters were duplicated early in vertebrate evolution, but the generation of arthropod and tetrapod diversity has largely involved regulatory changes in the expression of conserved arrays of homeotic genes and the evolution of interactions between homeotic proteins and the genes they regulate.

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Hox protein mutation and macroevolution of the insect body plan.

Nadine McGinnis, Matthew Ronshaugen, William McGinnis (2002)

A fascinating question in biology is how molecular changes in developmental pathways lead to macroevolutionary changes in morphology. Mutations in homeotic (Hox) genes have long been suggested as potential causes of morphological evolution, and there is abundant evidence that some changes in Hox expression patterns correlate with transitions in animal axial pattern. A major morphological transition in metazoans occurred about 400 million years ago, when six-legged insects diverged from crustacean-like arthropod ancestors with multiple limbs. In Drosophila melanogaster and other insects, the Ultrabithorax (Ubx) and abdominal A (AbdA, also abd-A) Hox proteins are expressed largely in the abdominal segments, where they can suppress thoracic leg development during embryogenesis. In a branchiopod crustacean, Ubx/AbdA proteins are expressed in both thorax and abdomen, including the limb primordia, but do not repress limbs. Previous studies led us to propose that gain and loss of transcriptional activation and repression functions in Hox proteins was a plausible mechanism to diversify morphology during animal evolution. Here we show that naturally selected alteration of the Ubx protein is linked to the evolutionary transition to hexapod limb pattern.