Qing Chen, Arun Kirshna Sasikala-Appukuttan, Zahabiya Husain, Anura Shrivastava, Marla Spain, Edward D Sendler, Bryce Daines, Stefan Fischer, Rui Chen, Tiffany A Cook, Markus Friedrich
The red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum is a resource-rich model for genomic and developmental studies. To extend previous studies on Tribolium eye development, we produced transcriptomes for normal-eyed and eye-depleted heads of pupae and adults to identify differentially transcript enriched (DE) genes in the visual system. Unexpectedly, cuticle-related genes were the largest functional class in the pupal compound eye DE gene population, indicating differential enrichment in three distinct cuticle components: clear lens facet cuticle, highly melanized cuticle of the "ocular diaphragm", which surrounds the Tribolium compound eye for internal fortification, and newly identified facet margins of tanned cuticle, possibly enhancing external fortification...
December 28, 2022: Genome Biology and Evolution