Evolutionary diversity and the ground plan in butterfly and moth wing patterns -comparative developmental biology of several species of butterflies and moths-

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K21612
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Evolutionary biology; Developmental biology
• Research Institution: National Agriculture and Food Research Organization
• Principal Investigator: Suzuki Takao 国立研究開発法人農業・食品産業技術総合研究機構, 生物機能利用研究部門, 研究員 (40442975)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: グラウンドプラン / 蝶と蛾 / 翅の模様

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Nymphalid ground plan (NGP) is a fundamental building logic in extraordinary diversity of butterfly and moth wing patterns. Previous studies revealed several phenotypic aspects of the NGP in divergence of lepidopteran insects. However, the molecular mechanisms of the NGP remains poorly understood. Here I investigated technical development of fundamental tools for studying molecular mechanisms and the application of them to examine developmental mechanisms of color and pattern formations. As a result, I explicitly conducted a morphological foundation of the NGP, and identified several cis-regulatory modules of a certain pigmentation gene. In addition, we established experimental systems of comparative transcriptomics among imaginal discs of several moths and butterflies, and a genome editing method in a wing-pattern strain of Bombyx mori.

Free Research Field

進化発生学