Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 6, 2026

Laboratory Maintenance of the Lower Dipteran Fly Bradysia (Sciara) coprophila: A New/Old Emerging Model Organism
04:26

Laboratory Maintenance of the Lower Dipteran Fly Bradysia (Sciara) coprophila: A New/Old Emerging Model Organism

Published on: April 19, 2024

Fast co-evolution of sevenless and bride of sevenless in endopterygote insects

Riyue Bao1, Markus Friedrich

  • 1Department of Biological Sciences, Wayne State University, 5047 Gullen Mall, Detroit, MI 48202, USA.

Development Genes and Evolution
|April 9, 2008
PubMed

Insights

Researchers identified the Bride of sevenless gene in insects like mosquitoes and beetles. Rapid evolution of its extracellular domain explains why its ligands are hard to find, suggesting conserved signaling in insects.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Biology
  • Evolutionary Genetics
  • Molecular Biology

Background:

  • The Sevenless (Sven) receptor tyrosine kinase pathway is crucial for Drosophila development, particularly in retinal patterning and male germline development.
  • Sven is evolutionarily conserved and orthologous to the vertebrate receptor tyrosine kinase c-Ros, but its ligands, including Bride of sevenless (Boss), have remained elusive in vertebrates and non-Drosophila insects.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the evolutionary conservation of the seven transmembrane domain protein gene, bride of sevenless (boss), across different insect species.
  • To understand the evolutionary dynamics of boss and its potential role in conserved signaling pathways.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized newly available insect genome sequence information to identify and analyze the boss gene.
  • Performed sequence conservation analysis focusing on the seven transmembrane domain and extracellular regions.
  • Analyzed domain-specific substitution rates to assess evolutionary rates.

Main Results:

  • Identified single orthologs of boss in mosquito, flour beetle, and honeybee genomes, primarily due to conserved seven transmembrane domains.
  • Observed that the extracellular region of boss is only conserved within Diptera (flies), not outside this order.
  • Demonstrated correlated fast evolutionary rates in the extracellular domains of both boss and sven, explaining the difficulty in detecting ligands via sequence similarity.

Conclusions:

  • The rapid evolution of the extracellular domains of boss and sven hinders sequence-based identification of ligands in distantly related species.
  • The conservation of boss in basal endopterygote insects (flour beetle and honeybee) suggests potentially conserved Sevenless signaling pathways controlling developmental patterning.

More Related Videos

Light Sheet-based Fluorescence Microscopy of Living or Fixed and Stained Tribolium castaneum Embryos10:15

Light Sheet-based Fluorescence Microscopy of Living or Fixed and Stained Tribolium castaneum Embryos

Published on: April 28, 2017

Microsurgical Obstruction of Testes Fusion in Spodoptera litura03:38

Microsurgical Obstruction of Testes Fusion in Spodoptera litura

Published on: July 16, 2021

Related Concept Videos

Osmoregulation in Insects01:47

Osmoregulation in Insects

Malpighian tubules are specialized structures found in the digestive systems of many arthropods, including most insects, that handle excretion and osmoregulation. The tubules are typically arranged in pairs and have a convoluted structure that increases their surface area.
Evolution of New Traits in Microbes01:24

Evolution of New Traits in Microbes

Microorganisms evolve rapidly due to their large population sizes and short generation times, often exhibiting measurable changes within days under laboratory conditions. Natural selection acts on standing genetic variation, enabling the retention and amplification of beneficial traits that confer fitness advantages in changing environments.Adaptive Pigment Regulation in RhodobacterIn Rhodobacter, a genus of purple non-sulfur bacteria, light-harvesting pigments such as bacteriochlorophyll and...
Convergent Evolution01:54

Convergent Evolution

Evolution shapes the features of organisms over time, ensuring that they are suited for the environments in which they live. Sometimes, selection pressure leads to the rise of similar but unrelated adaptations in organisms with no recent common ancestors, a process known as convergent evolution.The structures that arise from convergent evolution are called analogous structures. They are similar in function even if they are dissimilar in structure. Further, structures can be analogous while also...
Gene Evolution - Fast or Slow?02:05

Gene Evolution - Fast or Slow?

The genomes of eukaryotes are punctuated by long stretches of sequence which do not code for proteins or RNAs. Although some of these regions do contain crucial regulatory sequences, the vast majority of this DNA serves no known function. Typically, these regions of the genome are the ones in which the fastest change, in evolutionary terms, is observed, because there is typically little to no selection pressure acting on these regions to preserve their sequences.
In contrast, regions which code...
Gene Evolution - Fast or Slow?02:05

Gene Evolution - Fast or Slow?

The genomes of eukaryotes are punctuated by long stretches of sequence which do not code for proteins or RNAs. Although some of these regions do contain crucial regulatory sequences, the vast majority of this DNA serves no known function. Typically, these regions of the genome are the ones in which the fastest change, in evolutionary terms, is observed, because there is typically little to no selection pressure acting on these regions to preserve their sequences.
In contrast, regions which code...