The role of miRNAs in the evolution of body patterning

Dr Megan Wilson, Department of Biochemistry, was recently awarded $30,000 University of Otago Research Grant for a project on "The role of miRNAs in the evolution of body patterning.

One of the first events in early embryonic development is the establishment of the body plan of the future embryo.

We, and others, have now shown that the early events in embryonic patterning are evolving rapidly and this is likely to promote the evolution of animal diversity.

Although the genes that control body patterning are often conserved between animals, the timing and spatial expression of these genes differs even often between closely related organisms.

Non-coding RNAs (RNAs that do not encode a protein) such as microRNAs (miRNAs) are involved in the regulation of hundreds of genes in animal development, have also been proposed to underlie the evolution of complexity, yet there is little evidence for this proposal.

We plan to investigate the role of miRNAs in body pattern formation, a key event in which modifications are believed to be key in producing morphological diversity.

We will determine what miRNAs are present early in pattern formation in our insect model, the honeybee Apis mellifera, and which developmental pathways they target.

By comparing these to the miRNAs involved in the developmental pathways of the well-characterised insect model Drosophila, a fruitfly which diverged from honeybees 300 million years ago, we can determine how miRNAs contribute to body patterning and if/how their functions can change over millions of years of evolution and if this is likely to drive diversity.