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Updated: Nov 3, 2025

Quantifying Abdominal Pigmentation in Drosophila melanogaster
Published on: June 1, 2017
Regional patterning and regulation of melanin pigmentation in insects
Aleksandar Popadić1, Despina Tsitlakidou1
1Biological Sciences Department, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202, USA.
Abstract:
Insects display an immense diversity in melanin pigmentation, which is generated by the interplay between the regulatory genes (that provide general patterning information) and effector genes (that provide coloration of the pattern). However, recent studies encompassing several different orders (Hemiptera, Blattodea, Coleoptera, and Lepidoptera) have shown that knockdowns of melanin producing genes alone can generate distinct region-specific patterns. This review surveys the most recent studies to further document the regional patterning of effector genes, and highlights the new advances and their implications for future research.
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