Journal
ARTHROPOD STRUCTURE & DEVELOPMENT
Volume 39, Issue 6, Pages 446-452Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.asd.2010.05.007
Keywords
Wnt signalling; Evolution; Development; Drosophila; Tribolium; Achaearanea
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Wnt signalling is required for a wide range of developmental processes, from cleavage to patterning and cell migration. There are 13 subfamilies of Wnt ligand genes and this diverse repertoire appeared very early in metazoan evolution. In this review, we first summarise the known Wnt gene repertoire in various arthropods. Insects appear to have lost several Wnt subfamilies, either generally, such as Wnt3, or in lineage specific patterns, for example, the loss of Wnt7 in Anopheles. In Drosophila and Acyrthosiphon, only seven and six Wnt subfamilies are represented, respectively; however, the finding of nine Wnt genes in Tribolium suggests that arthropods had a larger repertoire ancestrally. We then discuss what is currently known about the expression and developmental function of Wnt ligands in Drosophila and other insects in comparison to other arthropods, such as the spiders Achaearanea and Cupiennius. We conclude that studies of Wnt genes have given us much insight into the developmental roles of some of these ligands. However, given the frequent loss of Writ genes in insects and the derived development of Drosophila, further studies of these important genes are required in a broader range of arthropods to fully understand their developmental function and evolution. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available