Evolution of pattern formation in insects

多胚现象是指一种独特的繁殖形式，其中一个卵导致多个后代，最大限度地提高物种的繁殖能力。对昆虫多胚现象的研究有可能解决发育进化中的一个关键问题：发育新奇性是如何产生的？昆虫多胚现象是一种发育上的新奇，其前体结构和进化过程基本上是未知的。Copidosoma floridanum是一种多胚寄生蜂，经历全卵裂，尽管它与果蝇的关系相对密切，但它与典型的昆虫早期发育程序有很大的偏差。Copidosoma发育包括三个阶段：早期卵裂，导致形成单个增殖的桑椹胚;新的增殖阶段，产生数千个胚胎;和形态发生阶段，其中单个胚胎的模式发生。以前，我们已经通过激光消融表明，在Copidosoma的种姓命运和胚胎增殖是由一个单细胞在四细胞阶段的胚胎，这也指定了生殖系。决定子在特定细胞中的这种差异性分配是胚胎增殖和模式化过程中单个基因功能解剖的起点。

Polyembryony refers to a unique form of reproduction in which a single egg results in multiple progeny, maximizing the reproductive capacity of the species. Study of the phenomenon of polyembryony in insects has the potential for addressing one of crucial questions in the evolution of development: How do developmental novelties arise? Polyembryony in insects represents a developmental novelty whereby both precursor structure and evolutionary processes are basically unknown. Copidosoma floridanum is a polyembryonic parasitic wasp that undergoes total cleavage and despite its relative close relatedness to Drosophila exhibits a major deviation from the canonical insect early developmental program. Copidosoma development consists of three phases: early cleavages, which leads to formation of a single proliferative morula; the novel proliferative phase, that generates thousands of embryos; and the morphogenetic phase, where the patterning of individual embryos takes place. Previously, we have shown by laser ablation that caste fate and embryo proliferation in Copidosoma are regulated by a single cell at the four-cell-stage embryo, which also specifies the germ line. This differential allocation of determinants to a specific cell serves as a starting point for the functional dissection of individual genes in the process of embryo proliferation and patterning.