title: Insect wing membrane topography is determined by the dorsal wing epithelium.
abstract: The Drosophila wing consists of a transparent wing membrane supported by a network of wing veins. Previously, we have shown that the wing membrane cuticle is not flat but is organized into ridges that are the equivalent of one wing epithelial cell in width and multiple cells in length. These cuticle ridges have an anteroposterior orientation in the anterior wing and a proximodistal orientation in the posterior wing. The precise topography of the wing membrane is remarkable because it is a fusion of two independent cuticle contributions from the dorsal and ventral wing epithelia. Here, through morphological and genetic studies, we show that it is the dorsal wing epithelium that determines wing membrane topography. Specifically, we find that wing hair location and membrane topography are coordinated on the dorsal, but not ventral, surface of the wing. In addition, we find that altering Frizzled Planar Cell Polarity (i.e., Fz PCP) signaling in the dorsal wing epithelium alone changes the membrane topography of both dorsal and ventral wing surfaces. We also examined the wing morphology of two model Hymenopterans, the honeybee Apis mellifera and the parasitic wasp Nasonia vitripennis. In both cases, wing hair location and wing membrane topography are coordinated on the dorsal, but not ventral, wing surface, suggesting that the dorsal wing epithelium also controls wing topography in these species. Because phylogenomic studies have identified the Hymenotera as basal within the Endopterygota family tree, these findings suggest that this is a primitive insect character.
authors: Department of Biological Sciences, Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia 25755, USA.
authors: Andrea D
authors: AD
authors: Belalcazar
authors: Kristy
authors: K
authors: Doyle
authors: Justin
authors: J
authors: Hogan
authors: David
authors: D
authors: Neff
authors: Simon
authors: S
authors: Collier
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001516:Bees / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D016764:Cell Polarity / Q000502:physiology; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D008853:Microscopy / Q000379:methods; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D008954:Models, Biological; D010802:Phylogeny; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology; D013045:Species Specificity; D014863:Wasps / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D014921:Wings, Animal / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000648:ultrastructure
keywords: Drosophila; Frizzled; Prickle; hymenoptera; planar cell polarity