DMC2-GEM Unit, The CABD, CSIC-UPO-JA, Seville, Spain.
Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK.
Wiley Interdiscip Rev Dev Biol. 2021 Mar;10(2):e380. doi: 10.1002/wdev.380. Epub 2020 May 12.
The compound eyes of flies exhibit striking variation in size, which has contributed to the adaptation of these animals to different habitats and their evolution of specialist behaviors. These differences in size are caused by differences in the number and/or size of ommatidia, which are specified during the development of the retinal field in the eye imaginal disc. While the genes and developmental mechanisms that regulate the formation of compound eyes are understood in great detail in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, we know very little about the genetic changes and mechanistic alterations that lead to natural variation in ommatidia number and/or size, and thus overall eye size, within and between fly species. Understanding the genetic and developmental bases for this natural variation in eye size not only has great potential to help us understand adaptations in fly vision but also determine how eye size and organ size more generally are regulated. Here we explore the genetic and developmental mechanisms that could underlie natural differences in compound eye size within and among fly species based on our knowledge of eye development in D. melanogaster and the few cases where the causative genes and mechanisms have already been identified. We suggest that the fly eye provides an evolutionary and developmental framework to better understand the regulation and diversification of this crucial sensory organ globally at a systems level as well as the gene regulatory networks and mechanisms acting at the tissue, cellular and molecular levels. This article is categorized under: Establishment of Spatial and Temporal Patterns > Regulation of Size, Proportion, and Timing Invertebrate Organogenesis > Flies Comparative Development and Evolution > Regulation of Organ Diversity.
蝇类的复眼在大小上表现出显著的差异，这有助于这些动物适应不同的栖息地，并进化出专门的行为。这些大小差异是由小眼的数量和/或大小的差异引起的，小眼在眼原基盘中的视网膜发育过程中被指定。虽然调控复眼形成的基因和发育机制在果蝇中已被深入了解，但我们对导致小眼数量和/或大小，以及整体眼睛大小在种内和种间自然变异的遗传变化和机制改变知之甚少。了解这种眼睛大小自然变异的遗传和发育基础，不仅有可能帮助我们理解蝇类视觉的适应，而且还决定了眼睛大小和器官大小通常是如何被调控的。在这里，我们根据我们对 D. melanogaster 眼发育的了解，以及已经确定的少数情况下的致病基因和机制，探讨了导致种内和种间复眼大小自然差异的遗传和发育机制。我们认为，蝇类眼睛为更好地理解全球范围内这个关键感觉器官的调控和多样化提供了一个进化和发育的框架，包括在系统水平上以及在组织、细胞和分子水平上的基因调控网络和机制。本文归类于：空间和时间模式的建立>大小、比例和时间的调控无脊椎动物器官发生>苍蝇比较发育与进化>器官多样性的调控。
