Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 A brief history of Lepidoptera as model systems
- 2 Genetics of the silkworm: revisiting an ancient model system
- 3 Mobile elements of lepidopteran genomes
- 4 Lepidopteran phytogeny and applications to comparative studies of development
- 5 A summary of lepidopteran embryogenesis and experimental embryology
- 6 Roles of homeotic genes in the Bombyx body plan
- 7 Chorion genes: an overview of their structure, function, and transcriptional regulation
- 8 Chorion genes: molecular models of evolution
- 9 Regulation of the silk protein genes and the homeobox genes in silk gland development
- 10 Control of transcription of Bombyx mori RNA polymerase III
- 11 Hormonal regulation of gene expression during lepidopteran development
- 12 Lepidoptera as model systems for studies of hormone action on the central nervous system
- 13 Molecular genetics of moth olfaction: a model for cellular identity and temporal assembly of the nervous system
- 14 Molecular biology of the immune response
- 15 Engineered baculoviruses: molecular tools for lepidopteran developmental biology and physiology and potential agents for insect pest control
- 16 Epilogue: Lepidopterans as model systems – questions and prospects
- References
- Index
5 - A summary of lepidopteran embryogenesis and experimental embryology
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 November 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 A brief history of Lepidoptera as model systems
- 2 Genetics of the silkworm: revisiting an ancient model system
- 3 Mobile elements of lepidopteran genomes
- 4 Lepidopteran phytogeny and applications to comparative studies of development
- 5 A summary of lepidopteran embryogenesis and experimental embryology
- 6 Roles of homeotic genes in the Bombyx body plan
- 7 Chorion genes: an overview of their structure, function, and transcriptional regulation
- 8 Chorion genes: molecular models of evolution
- 9 Regulation of the silk protein genes and the homeobox genes in silk gland development
- 10 Control of transcription of Bombyx mori RNA polymerase III
- 11 Hormonal regulation of gene expression during lepidopteran development
- 12 Lepidoptera as model systems for studies of hormone action on the central nervous system
- 13 Molecular genetics of moth olfaction: a model for cellular identity and temporal assembly of the nervous system
- 14 Molecular biology of the immune response
- 15 Engineered baculoviruses: molecular tools for lepidopteran developmental biology and physiology and potential agents for insect pest control
- 16 Epilogue: Lepidopterans as model systems – questions and prospects
- References
- Index
Summary
Lepidopterans have been the object of both genetic and experimental analysis since the turn of the century (see Table 5.1). In spite of this long history of research, very little is known about the establishment of the embryonic axes during early lepidopteran development. Recent progress in the field of insect embryology has been dominated by work on the dipteran Drosophila melanogaster, due to the success of combining experimental embryological manipulations with developmental genetics and molecular biology (see Sander, Gutzeit, and Jäckle, 1985, Akam, 1987, and Ingham, 1988, for reviews). Consequently, more is known about the establishment of embryonic axes in D. melanogaster than in any other organism. Many of the genes involved in the early determination events of D. melanogaster have been cloned and their putative homologues have subsequently been isolated from a wide range of other metazoans, from vertebrates to cnidarians (see Kessel and Gruss, 1990; Murtha, Leckman, and Ruddle, 1991; McGinnis and Krumlauf, 1992). Thus the early development of the Lepidoptera and other insects formerly intractable to molecular analysis can now be studied by taking advantage of this widespread sequence homology.
In this chapter I review the literature on lepidopteran development, with an emphasis on integrating the recent molecular data with the older descriptive and experimental work. I begin with a summary of the morphological features of lepidopteran embryos as compared to other insects. I then compare what is known about development in D. melanogaster to what is known in the Lepidoptera, with an eye toward understanding the conservation of the mechanisms of segmentation and embryonic axis formation.
Morphological features
A common approach to comparing the way in which different insects pattern their early embryos is encapsulated in the categories of long, intermediate, and short germ embryos.
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- Molecular Model Systems in the Lepidoptera , pp. 139 - 164Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1995
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