Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 21, 2025

Rearing and Double-stranded RNA-mediated Gene Knockdown in the Hide Beetle, Dermestes maculatus
Published on: December 28, 2016
Nutrition-responsive gene expression and the developmental evolution of insect polyphenism
Sofia Casasa1, Eduardo E Zattara2,3, Armin P Moczek4
1Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA. ascasasa@indiana.edu.
Abstract:
Nutrition-responsive development is a ubiquitous and highly diversified example of phenotypic plasticity, yet its underlying molecular and developmental mechanisms and modes of evolutionary diversification remain poorly understood. We measured genome-wide transcription in three closely related species of horned beetles exhibiting strikingly diverse degrees of nutrition responsiveness in the development of male weaponry. We show that (1) counts of differentially expressed genes between low- and high-nutritional backgrounds mirror species-specific degrees of morphological nutrition responsiveness; (2) evolutionary exaggeration of morphological responsiveness is underlain by both amplification of ancestral nutrition-responsive gene expression and recruitment of formerly low nutritionally responsive genes; and (3) secondary loss of morphological responsiveness to nutrition coincides with a dramatic reduction in gene expression plasticity. Our results further implicate genetic accommodation of ancestrally high variability of gene expression plasticity in both exaggeration and loss of nutritional plasticity, yet reject a major role of taxon-restricted genes in the developmental regulation and evolution of nutritional plasticity.
Related Concept Videos
Background and Environment Affect Phenotype
An example of how genetic background affects phenotype can be seen in horses. The Extension gene in horses is responsible for their coat color. A wild-type gene (EE) produces black pigment in the coat, while a mutant gene (ee) produces red pigment. A...
Position-effect Variegation
Cis-regulatory Sequences
Exon Recombination
Exon shuffling follows “splice frame rules.” Each exon...
Gene Duplication and Divergence
The duplicated copies of the gene are called Paralogs. Paralogs with similar sequences and functions form a gene family. Across several species, a large number of gene families are...
Pleiotropy

