Meeting Abstract
P1.66 Friday, Jan. 4 Developing an RNA Interference Protocol for the Mite Archegozetes longisetosus BARNETT, AA*; SCHMIDT-OTT, U; Southern Illinois University; University of Chicago abarnett@siu.edu
The establishment of methodologies that reveal the functions of genes and their products are necessary for understanding the evolution of developmental regulation and morphological novelties. RNA interference (RNAi) is one such method as it reveals a gene’s function by disrupting its translation. Recent phylogenetic studies place the chelicerates as the most basally branching arthropod group, making developmental studies of chelicerates essential to understand arthropod evolution. Despite this, RNAi has been developed for only three chelicerate species, the spiders Parasteotoda tepidariorum and Cuppiennius salei, and the mite Tetranychus urticae. Acari (mites and ticks) are the most morphologically diverse and speciose chelicerate clade with over 55,000 nominal taxa and many as yet unnamed species, making Acari species an ideal choice for comparative studies. Besides T. urticae, the only other mite used for gene expression studies is Archegozetes longisetosus. However, RNAi protocols for this species are currently unavailable. T. urticae and A. longisetosus represent disparate mite lineages, which diverged prior to the mid-Devonian. This long period of independent evolution has resulted in drastically different body morphologies (e.g. the absence of genital papillae in T. urticae), feeding behaviors (particulate vs. fluid feeding), and life history strategies, (i.e., A. longisetosus maintains the pleisiomorphic Acari life cycle of a prelarva, larva, three nymphal stages, and the adult). Therefore, the morphological differences and similarities between these two species provide an excellent opportunity to study developmental plasticity and evolutionary novelty in Acari in particular, and arthropods in general. The objective of the research proposed is to develop an RNAi protocol for use on the mite Archegozetes longisetosus. Here we highlight the outcomes emerging from this work.
