Rhinoceros
beetles and dung beetles use the same genes to form their elaborate horns
Date: October 4, 2018
Source: PLOS
Horns
have evolved independently multiple times in scarab beetles, but distantly
related species have made use of the same genetic toolkit to grow these
prominent structures, according to a study publishing October 4, 2018 in the
open-access journal PLOS Genetics by Teruyuki Niimi at the National
Institute for Basic Biology in Okazaki, Japan, and colleagues.
There are
over 35,000 species of scarab beetle (Scarabaeidae), and many scarab beetles
grow horns on the head and/or upper body. Horns are considered to be
independent radiation in rhinoceros beetles and their distant relatives dung
beetles. Rhinoceros beetles include some of the largest insect species on
earth, such as the famous Atlas and Hercules beetles. To investigate the
genetic mechanisms that control horn development in these distant groups, the
team examined gene expression and function in early horn cells in developing larvae
of the Japanese rhinoceros beetle (Trypoxylus dichotomus), and compared this
with published data for dung beetles.
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