Project Details
Projekt
Identification of short-germ-specific segmentation genes in Tribolium: We want to identify and functionally analyze novel genes that genes that are required for sequential segmentation in a cellularized environment, as well as genes involved in the setup of the Tribolium antrior-posterior axis
Applicant
Professor Dr. Martin Klingler
Subject Area
Evolutionary Cell and Developmental Biology (Zoology)
Term
from 2010 to 2014
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 102336348
My lab is interested in understanding the formation of segment primordia in short germ insects, and in how the long germ mode of development in Drosophila evolved from this ancestral mechanism. Up to now, Tribolium homologs of most Drosophila segmentation genes have been isolated and tested by RNAi. The majority of these genes turned out lo have pivotal functions also in Tribolium; quite a few, however, have no obvious role in early Tribolium development, or have surprisingly weak phenotypes. On the other hand, two genes have already been identified which have segmentation functions in Tribolium but not Drosophila: mille-pattes (which was identified by EST expression screening in the Tautz lab) and Mex-3 (which we found as a C. elegans-based candidate gene). Evidently, the segmentation gene sets of Tribolium and Drosophila overlap only partially, and it is crucial lo identify the missing Tribolium-specific factors. In this project we will reexamine the phenotypes of all segmentation genes identified in the iBeetle screen, study their expression in early embryos, and locale them within the Tribolium segmentation machinery. Based on their phenotype, expression pattern and sequence homology lo known invertebrate or vertebrate genes, a few germ band patterning genes (project A) and axis determination genes (project B) will be chosen for in-detail analysis. Unexpected and unusual genes (like mille-pattes) will receive highest priority. Interaction of these genes with known Tribolium segmentation genes will be tested by RNAi, and inducible expression will be used lo identify their patterning functions in the growth zone without disrupting germ band elongation
DFG Programme
Research Units
