![]() Next, referring to the mechanism of sex determination in Drosophila, they examined how the sex of the beetle was determined. As a result of this, it became clear that it took about 36 hours after the reference point for the morphological differences between males and females in the horn primordia to appear. Using this as a reference point, the research group was able to create a stage table of horn formation along a time axis. "We found that "head-rocking behavior" was a sign of the beginning of the prepupal stage." Dr. Morita then video recorded a few weeks of the process of beetle larvae becoming pupae, and looked for signs that the prepupal stage had started. Morita developed a rearing method encompassing the beetle's late larval stage up until adulthood that utilized plastic tubes yet didn't require any soil. Furthermore, because the larvae and pupae live in the soil, it was particularly difficult to observe their development." Therefore, Dr. ![]() Shinichi Morita said "Unlike the model animal Drosophila, we did not have any basic information concerning these beetles, such as their developmental stages. To this end, a research team at the National Institute for Basic Biology in Japan has identified sex-determining genes for this beetle, and has succeeded in identifying the timing of sex differences that appear in horn primordia.Ī member of the research team, Dr. As such, researchers are accordingly looking for the mechanism that creates these horns. The male Japanese rhinoceros beetle, Trypoxylus dichotomus, living on Japan's main island has big horns, which are used as weapons when it fights other males for females. ![]() Male-like horns are formed in the female beetle. Image: Male Japanese rhinoceros beetle (left), female beetle (center), Knockdown phenotypes of transformer gene (right). ![]()
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