Beetles comprise 400,000 described species and 40% of all insects as well as displaying high levels of noteworthy diversity. Their elytra, a sclerotized non-flight forewing, is a uniquely defining feature that has allowed them to become widely prevalent and ubiquitous worldwide. In an effort to explore this novel trait, we performed a complementation test on several spontaneous pigmentation mutants. In line with previously done sequencing and known linkage groupings, we were able to identify the cola spontaneous mutant as the well-known pigmentation gene, ebony. We encountered striking results in the black spontaneous mutant, showing unexpected region-specific pigmentation changes. Spontaneous mutants sooty, jet, & jet2 showed negative results. This method allowed us to deepen our understanding of and discover new relationships within the pigmentation and sclerotization pathway in beetles, alongside providing new realms of potential research further down the line. This study stands to additionally show the ever-present ability of classic gene-studying techniques in the identification of and the discovery of new interactions between genes.
Author(s): Jacob Mohn, Yoshinori Tomoyasu
Advisor(s): Yoshinori Tomoyasu Department of Biology
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