The increasing availability of insect genomes has revealed a large number of genes with
unknown functions and the resulting problem of how to discover these functions. The RNA …

The red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum has emerged as an important insect model system
for a variety of topics. With respect to studying gene function, it is second only to the vinegar …

Tribolium castaneum is a small, low-maintenance beetle that has emerged as a
sophisticated model system for studying the evolution of development and that complements …

For more than a century, the origin and evolution of the arthropod head and brain have
eluded a unifying rationale reconciling divergent morphologies and phylogenetic …

Gene expression has been employed for homologizing body regions across bilateria. The
molecular comparison of vertebrate and fly brains has led to a number of disputed homology …

Gene duplication generates new genetic material that can contribute to the evolution of gene
regulatory networks and phenotypes. Duplicated genes can undergo subfunctionalization to …

Long-germ insects, such as the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, pattern their segments
simultaneously, whereas short-germ insects, such as the beetle Tribolium castaneum …

Background Most of the known genes required for developmental processes have been
identified by genetic screens in a few well-studied model organisms, which have been …

Tribolium castaneum is exceptionally amenable to gene knockdown by RNA interference
(RNAi) which, in this insect, is systemic (spreading throughout the organism and to the next …

Several highly conserved genes play a role in anterior neural plate patterning of vertebrates
and in head and brain patterning of insects. However, head involution in Drosophila has …