A study by Yoshinori Tomoyasu, assistant professor of zoology at
Miami University, and colleagues provides insight into the
evolution of beetles. Their study, published in the Dec. 29
issue of Current Biology, reveals extensive conservation of the
wing gene network between the coleopteran (beetle) Tribolium,
and the fly, Drosophila, even after 300 million years of
separation of these two lineages. The study ﬁndings suggest that
beetle evolution has been achieved by co-opting a beneﬁcial
trait several times while conserving the main framework of wing
patterning genes. The evolutionary process of co-opting occurs
when natural selection finds new uses for pre-existing traits,
such as the cuticle hardening process, says Tomoyasu. “A message
we have learned from this study and others is that evolution
seems to be very ‘conservative,’ adding some new features with
keeping a core developmental mechanism fairly intact. This might
be true for many other evolutionary processes, including the
evolution of humans.” Coleo