Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Changes in the Appendicular Skeleton with Age

Changes in the Appendicular Skeleton with Age

The upper and lower limb initially develops as a small bulge called a limb bud, which appears on the lateral side of the early embryo. The upper limb bud appears near the end of the fourth week of development, with the lower limb bud appearing shortly after.
Initially, the limb buds consist of a core of mesenchyme covered by a layer of ectoderm. The ectoderm at the end of the limb bud thickens to form a narrow crest called the apical ectodermal ridge. This ridge stimulates the underlying...

Muscles of the Abdomen

Muscles of the Abdomen

The abdominal wall encircles the abdominal cavity, providing flexible protection and shielding the internal organs from harm. It is bordered at the top by the xiphoid process and costal margins, at the back by the vertebral column, and at the bottom by the pelvic bones and inguinal ligament. The abdominal wall is divided into two regions — the anterolateral and posterior regions.
Anterolateral Region
The anterolateral region comprises five paired muscles classified into the lateral and anterior...

Evolution of New Traits in Microbes

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...

Regional Terms

Regional Terms

Regional terms describe anatomy by dividing the body parts into different regions that contain structures involved in contributing similar functions. Using these terms helps increase the accurate description and identification of the particular region of interest or region affected by the disease.
Primarily, the human body has two major regions, the axial and appendicular regions. The axial region comprises regions from the head to the abdomen and makes up the central body axis. In contrast,...

Gastrulation

Gastrulation

Gastrulation establishes the three primary tissues of an embryo: the ectoderm, mesoderm, and endoderm. This developmental process relies on a series of intricate cellular movements, which in humans transforms a flat, “bilaminar disc” composed of two cell sheets into a three-tiered structure. In the resulting embryo, the endoderm serves as the bottom layer, and stacked directly above it is the intermediate mesoderm, and then the uppermost ectoderm. Respectively, these tissue strata will form...

Abdominal Regions and Quadrants

Abdominal Regions and Quadrants

To promote clear communication, for instance, about the location of a patient's abdominal pain or a suspicious mass, anatomists and clinicians typically use imaginary lines to categorize the abdominopelvic cavity into either four quadrants or nine regions to identify organs in the cavity.
The simpler quadrants approach, which is more commonly used in medicine, subdivides the cavity with one horizontal and one vertical line that intersects at the patient's umbilicus (navel). The four quadrants...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Gain of cis-regulatory activities underlies novel domains of wingless gene expression in Drosophila.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2015

Same author

Homeotic functions of the Teashirt transcription factor during adult Drosophila development.

Biology open·2013

Same author

Hox-mediated regulation of doublesex sculpts sex-specific abdomen morphology in Drosophila.

Developmental dynamics : an official publication of the American Association of Anatomists·2012

Same author

Drosophila pupal abdomen immunohistochemistry.

Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE·2011

Same author

Sexually dimorphic regulation of the Wingless morphogen controls sex-specific segment number in Drosophila.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2011

Same author

The evolution of abdominal reduction and the recent origin of distinct Abdominal-B transcript classes in Diptera.

Evolution & development·2006

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 18, 2026

A 3-D Tail Explant Culture to Study Vertebrate Segmentation in Zebrafish

A 3-D Tail Explant Culture to Study Vertebrate Segmentation in Zebrafish

Published on: June 30, 2021

Abdominal segment reduction: development and evolution of a deeply fixed trait.

¹Department of Biological Sciences, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA. jhyoder@as.ua.edu

|October 3, 2012

Summary

Male and female Drosophila melanogaster differ in abdominal segment number due to a sex-specific process during pupation. This epithelial reorganization is regulated by Abdominal-B and Doublesex, impacting genes like wingless.

More Related Videos

Three and Four-Dimensional Visualization and Analysis Approaches to Study Vertebrate Axial Elongation and Segmentation

Three and Four-Dimensional Visualization and Analysis Approaches to Study Vertebrate Axial Elongation and Segmentation

Published on: February 28, 2021

Surgical Size Reduction of Zebrafish for the Study of Embryonic Pattern Scaling

Surgical Size Reduction of Zebrafish for the Study of Embryonic Pattern Scaling

Published on: May 3, 2019

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: May 18, 2026

A 3-D Tail Explant Culture to Study Vertebrate Segmentation in Zebrafish

A 3-D Tail Explant Culture to Study Vertebrate Segmentation in Zebrafish

Published on: June 30, 2021

Three and Four-Dimensional Visualization and Analysis Approaches to Study Vertebrate Axial Elongation and Segmentation

Three and Four-Dimensional Visualization and Analysis Approaches to Study Vertebrate Axial Elongation and Segmentation

Published on: February 28, 2021

Surgical Size Reduction of Zebrafish for the Study of Embryonic Pattern Scaling

Surgical Size Reduction of Zebrafish for the Study of Embryonic Pattern Scaling

Published on: May 3, 2019

Area of Science:

Developmental Biology
Genetics
Evolutionary Biology

Background:

Drosophila melanogaster exhibits sexual dimorphism, including differences in abdominal segment number.
Males have one fewer abdominal segment than females, with the terminal segment being absent or fused.
Key regulators like Abdominal-B (Abd-B) and Doublesex (Dsx) are known, but underlying mechanisms are unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the morphogenetic processes and downstream genetics of sex-specific abdominal segment number determination in Drosophila.
To explore the roles of Abd-B and Dsx in this developmental process.

Main Methods:

Analysis of epithelial reorganization during pupation in Drosophila melanogaster.
Investigating sex- and segment-specific gene regulation, including wingless and dsx.

Main Results:

A rapid epithelial reorganization during pupation eliminates a nascent terminal male segment.
This process is dependent on Abdominal-B (Abd-B).
Sex- and segment-specific regulation of developmental targets, including wingless and Doublesex (Dsx) itself, was observed.

Conclusions:

The study reveals a novel mechanism for sex determination in Drosophila abdominal segment number.
Epithelial morphogenesis and the evolution of developmental mechanisms can be studied using this trait.
Abd-B and Dsx play crucial roles in regulating downstream targets for sex-specific development.