Analyses of mechanisms regulating the traveling and splitting of stripe patterns

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This work was aimed at elucidating molecular mechanisms underlying the traveling and splitting of a wave of hedgehog expression, which is observed for head segmentation in the embryo of the spider Parasteatoda tepidariorum, an emerging model arthropod that belongs to the Chelicerata. We carried out an embryonic RNA interference screen for genes whose knockdowns affected the behavior of the wave of hedgehog expression and identified armadillo and axin, which are known as regulators of wingless signaling. Detailed analyses of the phenotypes showed that the absence of armadillo activity prevented the hedgehog wave from behaving dynamically and made the hedgehog expression independent of orthodenticle. Our findings revealed a part of the mechanisms of hedgehog wave traveling and splitting.