The impressive diversity of wings in insects offers an attractive opportunity to study the molecular basis underlying morphological evolution. The wings of insects play an important role in the adaptation of insects to a wide variety of environments. However, the evolutionary origin of this critical structure is still elusive. In order to investigate the origin of insect wings, we have been using the “wingless” first thoracic segment (T1) of Tribolium castaneum (the red flour beetle) as a model. Our previous study found that tsh, which codes for the lone ortholog of Teashirt family Zn finger transcription factor in Tribolium, is critical for the specification of the pleural tissues in T1. Upon RNA interference (RNAi) for tsh, pleural tissues were heavily affected leading to reduction or complete removal. These outcomes suggest that tsh can be a useful tool to investigate the roles of dorsal and pleural tissues in their contributions to wing formation. In this project, our first aim is to analyze the effects of tsh RNAi on the T1 segment of Tribolium in details, with a significant focus on the pleural tissues. The second aim of the project is to analyze the ectopic wings induced by the reduction of Hox function when tsh function is also reduced. This allows us to analyze the ectopic wings formed mainly from the dorsal tissue, thus will further our understanding of the extent to which the pleural and dorsal tissues contribute to the formation of insect wings.
Author: Zaim A. Haq
Faculty Advisor: Yoshinori Tomoyasu, Department of Biology
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