ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2019
Cooption of the pteridine biosynthesis pathway underlies the diversification of embryonic colors in water striders.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
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21 citing papers in PubMed, 52 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Interfacial vortex recapture enhances thrust in tiny water skaters.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Direct Parental (DIPA) CRISPR in the jewel wasp, Nasonia vitripennis.G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2024Article
- Biosynthesis of Pteridines in Insects: A Review.Insects · 2024Review
- CRISPR/Cas9-mediated efficient white genome editing in the black soldier fly Hermetia illucens.Molecular genetics and genomics : MGG · 2024Article
- Genome editing of the vermilion locus generates a visible eye color marker for Oncopeltus fasciatus.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Transcriptome-based Phylogeny of the Semi-aquatic Bugs (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Gerromorpha) Reveals Patterns of Lineage Expansion in a Series of New Adaptive Zones.Molecular biology and evolution · 2022Article
- Testing for fitness epistasis in a transplant experiment identifies a candidate adaptive locus inPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Article
- RNAi-induced knockdown of white gene in the southern green stink bug (Nezara viridula L.).Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Efficient CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome modification of the glassy-winged sharpshooter Homalodisca vitripennis (Germar).Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Gene Editing and Genetic Control of Hemipteran Pests: Progress, Challenges and Perspectives.Frontiers in bioengineering and biotechnology · 2022Review
- Pterin-based pigmentation in animals.Biology letters · 2021Article
- Many ways to make darker flies: Intra- and interspecific variation inEcology and evolution · 2021Article
- Genome-wide identification and gene-editing of pigment transporter genes in the swallowtail butterfly Papilio xuthus.BMC genomics · 2021Article
- Ommochrome pathway genes kynurenine 3-hydroxylase and cardinal participate in eye pigmentation in Plutella xylostella.BMC molecular and cell biology · 2020Article
- Identification and age-dependence of pteridines in bed bugs (Cimex lectularius) and bat bugs (C. pipistrelli) using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.Scientific reports · 2020Article
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Authors and funding
14 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Naturalists have been fascinated for centuries by animal colors and color patterns. While widely studied at the adult stage, we know little about color patterns in the embryo. Here, we study a trait consisting of coloration that is specific to the embryo and absent from postembryonic stages in water striders (Gerromorpha). By combining developmental genetics with chemical and phylogenetic analyses across a broad sample of species, we uncovered the mechanisms underlying the emergence and diversification of embryonic colors in this group of insects. We show that the pteridine biosynthesis pathway, which ancestrally produces red pigment in the eyes, has been recruited during embryogenesis in various extraocular tissues including antennae and legs. In addition, we discovered that this cooption is common to all water striders and initially resulted in the production of yellow extraocular color. Subsequently, 6 lineages evolved bright red color and 2 lineages lost the color independently. Despite the high diversity in colors and color patterns, we show that the underlying biosynthesis pathway remained stable throughout the 200 million years of Gerromorpha evolutionary time. Finally, we identified erythropterin and xanthopterin as the pigments responsible for these colors in the embryo of various species. These findings demonstrate how traits can emerge through the activation of a biosynthesis pathway in new developmental contexts.
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