Crinkled employs wingless pathway for wing development in Tribolium castaneum

Crinkled is associated with embryonic denticle formation and auditory organ development in Drosophila melanogaster. However, the functions of Crinkled have not been fully investigated. Additionally, the genes that participate in the Crinkled pathway are unknown. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that crinkled exhibits a one-to-one orthologous relationship in insects. In Tribolium castaneum, the crinkled gene is 6,498 bp in length and consists of six exons. Crinkled expression peaked during two phases in Tribolium: late embryonic and pupal stages. High levels of crinkled mRNA were detected in the fat body, head, epidermis, ovary, and accessory gland of late adults. Knockdown of crinkled using RNA interference (RNAi) severely affected wing morphogenesis in T. castaneum. We further showed that crinkled silencing reduced forked expression through wingless and shaven-baby, and RNAi of forked phenocopied the effects of crinkled knockdown in T. castaneum. This study investigated the development role of crinkled in postembryonic stages and indicated that forked mediates the functions of crinkled during wing morphogenesis in T. castaneum.