Heterochrony in orthodenticle expression is associated with ommatidial size variation between Drosophila species.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The compound eyes of insects exhibit extensive variation in ommatidia number and size, which affects how they see and underlies adaptations in their vision to different environments and lifestyles. However, very little is known about the genetic and developmental bases of differences in eye size. We previously showed that the larger eyes of Drosophila mauritiana compared to D. simulans are generally caused by differences in ommatidia size rather than number. Furthermore, we identified an X-linked chromosomal region in D. mauritiana that results in larger eyes when introgressed into D. simulans.

Results

Here, we used a combination of fine-scale mapping and gene expression analysis to further investigate positional candidate genes on the X chromosome. We found earli

SUBMITTER: Torres-Oliva M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11792340 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature