Developmental mechanism of the tarsus in insect legs

• Published in: Current opinion in insect science Vol. 19; pp. 36 - 42
• Main Author: Kojima, Tetsuya
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier Inc 01.02.2017
• Subjects: Animals; cell death; Drosophila melanogaster; Drosophila melanogaster - growth & development; Extremities - growth & development; Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; Insecta - growth & development; insects; legs
• ISSN: 2214-5745; 2214-5745; 2214-5753
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cois.2016.11.002

•The number and proportion of tarsal segments are highly variable among insect species.•Studies in D. melanogaster have revealed many key aspects of tarsal development.•They range from regionalization to morphological segmentation to joint formation.•The tarsal development is a good model for studying morphological evolution. Insects show a tremendous morphological variety and have been a subject of studying morphological evolution. In legs, the tarsus is especially variable in the number of subsegments (tarsal segments) and their proportion unlike other leg segments. Recent studies in Drosophila melanogaster have revealed details of the tarsal development: regionalization of the tarsal region through integration of regulatory network and its growth, determination of the joint-forming region in each segment through strict regulation of Notch activity, changes in tissue morphology through regulation of RhoGTPases regulators and localized cell death, and finally, the morphogenetic mechanism of the ball-and-socket joint between tarsal segments. The substantial knowledge of the tarsal development makes it a suitable model for studying mechanisms of morphological evolution and diversification.