Evolution of pattern formation in insects

多胚胎是指一种独特的生殖形式，其中一个卵子产生多个后代，最大限度地提高了物种的繁殖能力。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：发育新奇是如何产生的？昆虫的多胚胎发育代表了一种发展的新颖性，即前体结构和进化过程基本上是未知的。floridosoma Copidosoma floridanum是一种多胚胎寄生蜂，经历了完全卵裂，尽管它与果蝇的关系相对较近，但却表现出与典型昆虫早期发育程序的重大偏离。Copidosoma的发育包括三个阶段：早期分裂，导致形成单个增殖的桑葚胚；新的增殖阶段，产生成千上万个胚胎；在形态发生阶段，单个胚胎的模式发生。在此之前，我们已经通过激光烧蚀的方法证明了Copidosoma的种姓命运和胚胎增殖是由四细胞期胚胎的单个细胞调控的，这也指定了种系。这种对特定细胞的决定因素的差异分配作为胚胎增殖和模式形成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.