Enhanced genome assembly and a new official gene set for Tribolium castaneum.

Background: The red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum has emerged as an important model organism for the study of gene function in development and physiology, for ecological and evolutionary genomics, for pest control and a plethora of other topics. RNA interference (RNAi), transgenesis and genome editing are well established and the resources for genome-wide RNAi screening have become available in this model. All these techniques depend on a high quality genome assembly and precise gene models.

Hyperactive piggyBac transposase improves transformation efficiency in diverse insect species.

Even in times of advanced site-specific genome editing tools, the improvement of DNA transposases is still on high demand in the field of transgenesis: especially in emerging model systems where evaluated integrase landing sites have not yet been created and more importantly in non-model organisms such as agricultural pests and disease vectors, in which reliable sequence information and genome annotations are still pending. In fact, random insertional mutagenesis is essential to identify new genomic locations that are not influenced by position effects and thus can serve as future stable transgene integration sites. In this respect, a hyperactive version of the most widely used piggyBac transposase (PBase) has been engineered.

A key role for in anterior head and central brain patterning in insects.

Anterior patterning of animals is based on a set of highly conserved transcription factors but the interactions within the protostome anterior gene regulatory network (aGRN) remain enigmatic. Here, we identify the red flour beetle ortholog of () as a novel upstream component of the aGRN. It is required for the development of the labrum and higher order brain structures, namely the central complex and the mushroom bodies.

RNAi phenotypes are influenced by the genetic background of the injected strain.

Background: RNA interference (RNAi) is a powerful tool to study gene function in organisms that are not amenable to classical forward genetics. Hence, together with the ease of comprehensively identifying genes by new generation sequencing, RNAi is expanding the scope of animal species and questions that can be addressed in terms of gene function. In the case of genetic mutants, the genetic background of the strains used is known to influence the phenotype while this has not been described for RNAi experiments.

Asymmetrically expressed axin required for anterior development in Tribolium.

Canonical Wnt signaling has been implicated in an AP axis polarizing mechanism in most animals, despite limited evidence from arthropods. In the long-germ insect, Drosophila, Wnt signaling is not required for global AP patterning, but in short-germ insects including Tribolium castaneum, loss of Wnt signaling affects development of segments in the growth zone but not those defined in the blastoderm. To determine the effects of ectopic Wnt signaling, we analyzed the expression and function of axin, which encodes a highly conserved negative regulator of the pathway.