The Phylogenetic Origin of oskar Coincided with the Origin of Maternally Provisioned Germ Plasm and Pole Cells at the Base of the Holometabola

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1002029
• Publication Date: 2011-04-28T21:11:25Z
• Authors: Jeremy A. Lynch; Orhan Özüak; Abderrahman Khila; Ehab Abouheif; Claude Desplan; Siegfried Roth
• Keywords: Germ plasm; oskar; Drosophila embryogenesis; Ovariole

The establishment of the germline is a critical, yet surprisingly evolutionarily labile, event in development sexually reproducing animals. In fly Drosophila, germ cells acquire their fate early during through inheritance plasm, specialized maternal cytoplasm localized at posterior pole oocyte. gene oskar (osk) both necessary and sufficient for assembling this substance. Both plasm are evolutionary novelties within insects, as specified by zygotic induction basally branching osk has until now only been detected dipterans. order to understand origin these novelties, we used comparative genomics, parental RNAi, expression analyses multiple insect species. We have found that its role specifying coincided with innovation base holometabolous insects losses correlated changes determination strategies Holometabola. Our results indicate invention novel was key allowed transition from ancestral late mode maternally controlled many propose connect an upstream network ancestrally involved mRNA localization translational control downstream regulatory executing cell program.