GEPHE SUMMARY Print
Gephebase Gene
Entry Status
Published
GepheID
GP00002665
Main curator
Courtier
PHENOTYPIC CHANGE
Trait Category
Trait State in Taxon A
Tribolium castaneum - wild-type allele - black eyes
Trait State in Taxon B
Tribolium castaneum - peach allele - white eyes
Ancestral State
Taxon A
Taxonomic Status
Taxon A
Common Name
red flour beetle
Synonyms
red flour beetle; rust-red flour beetle; Tribolium castaneum (Herbst, 1797)
Rank
species
Lineage
Show more ... Mandibulata; Pancrustacea; Hexapoda; Insecta; Dicondylia; Pterygota; Neoptera; Holometabola; Coleoptera; Polyphaga; Cucujiformia; Tenebrionoidea; Tenebrionidae; Tenebrionidae incertae sedis; Tribolium
NCBI Taxonomy ID
is Taxon A an Infraspecies?
No
Taxon B
Common Name
red flour beetle
Synonyms
red flour beetle; rust-red flour beetle; Tribolium castaneum (Herbst, 1797)
Rank
species
Lineage
Show more ... Mandibulata; Pancrustacea; Hexapoda; Insecta; Dicondylia; Pterygota; Neoptera; Holometabola; Coleoptera; Polyphaga; Cucujiformia; Tenebrionoidea; Tenebrionidae; Tenebrionidae incertae sedis; Tribolium
NCBI Taxonomy ID
is Taxon B an Infraspecies?
No
GENOTYPIC CHANGE
Presumptive Null
Yes
Molecular Type
Aberration Type
Insertion Size
1-10 kb
Molecular Details of the Mutation
A fragment of a transposable element (about 5 kb - 99% identical in amino acids to a putative retrotransposon (XP_015838217)) is inserted into exon 6. This insertion introduced a premature stop codon just after the insertion site. Amino acid residues near the C-terminal end of the haem peroxidase domain are thus disrupted.
Experimental Evidence
Authors
Shirai Y; Daimon T
Abstract
Ommochromes are the major pigments found in the eyes, eggs, wings and epidermis of insects. Here, we report the identification and characterization of the gene responsible for red-1 locus of Tribolium, whose mutants have white eyes due to lack of ommochrome pigments in the eyes. Using a candidate gene approach, we demonstrated that red-1 and peach mutants have molecular defects in the cardinal gene, which encodes a haem peroxidase that is considered to convert 3-hydroxykynurenine into ommochromes in pigment granules. Our experiments showed that the expression pattern of cardinal correlates well with the progression of eye pigmentation during pupal stages. We performed gene editing experiments using the Receptor-Mediated Ovary Transduction of Cargo (ReMOT) Control technique to disrupt the cardinal gene by adult injection, and were able to establish a novel cardinal mutant line. Our complementation test provided definitive genetic evidence that cardinal is located at the red-1 locus. The present study will lead to a greater understanding of the function and diversity of ommochrome pathway genes in insects. Our successful use of ReMOT Control in beetles will facilitate the development of more efficient and versatile systems for insect genome editing by simple adult injection.

Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Additional References
RELATED GEPHE
Related Genes
No matches found.
Related Haplotypes
1
EXTERNAL LINKS
COMMENTS
@TE - The enzyme cardinal appears to catalyze the last step of ommin formation by using either 3-hydroxykynurenine or xanthommatin as substrates. Spontaneous mutation.
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