Genetic screens are powerful tools to identify the genes required for a given biological
process. However, for technical reasons, comprehensive screens have been restricted to …

The conservation of gene networks that specify and differentiate distinct tissues has long
been a subject of great interest to evolutionary developmental biologists, but the question of …

Highlights•Amnioserosa cells are functionally and evolutionarily comparable to amnion
cells.•Amnioserosa cells regulate dorsal closure through controlled osmosis and …

It is widely accepted that stressful conditions can facilitate evolutionary change. The
mechanisms elucidated thus far accomplish this with a generic increase in heritable …

Insect development has contributed significantly to our understanding of metazoan
development. However, most information has been obtained by analyzing a single species …

Unlike passive rupture of the human chorioamnion at birth, the insect extraembryonic (EE)
tissues–the amnion and serosa–actively rupture and withdraw in late embryogenesis …

Parental RNA interference (pRNAi) is a powerful and widely used method for gene‐specific
knockdown. Yet in insects its efficacy varies between species, and how the systemic …

Gene regulatory networks (GRNs) evolve as a result of the coevolutionary processes acting
on transcription factors (TFs) and the cis-regulatory modules they bind. The zinc-finger TF …

Tribolium castaneum has become an important insect model organism for evolutionary
developmental biology, genetics and biotechnology. However, few protocols for live …

Disentangling the evolution of the molecular processes and genetic networks that facilitate
the emergence of morphological novelties is one of the main objectives in evolutionary …