During the evolution of insect lineages, a signaling pathway dedicated to pathogen defense was co-opted for a new role in embryonic patterning.

The maintenance DNA methyltransferase DNMT1 is required for the transition of spermatogonia to spermatocytes both during larval testis development and adult sperm replenishment in the insect Oncopeltus fasciatus.

mille-pattes micropeptides have conserved function in insect embryonic patterning together with transcription factor Shaven-baby and ubiquitin ligase Ubr3, except in flies wherein restoring broad embryonic Svb expression restores patterning potency.

Crucial functions of Toll signalling during dorsoventral axis formation might have evolved convergently in flies and crickets.

Late morphogenesis of the insect extraembryonic epithelia involves transient formation of a basal-basal bilayer to coordinate the functional contributions of two discrete tissues.

Fog signaling with a narrow morphogenetic role in Drosophila has a deeply conserved function in epithelial morphogenesis across insects.

Pair-rule genes in the wasp Nasonia function as in Drosophila in patterning anterior segments, and similar to ancestral insects in patterning posterior segments, illustrating a mixed-mode transition state between short and long germ embryogenesis.

As the first fully genetically encoded method, PARIS allows cell-specific, long-term, repeated measurements of gap junctional coupling with high spatiotemporal resolution, facilitating its study in both health and disease.

CenH3, the defining component of centromeres in almost all eukaryotes, was independently lost in four insect lineages that transitioned from monocentricity to holocentricity.

Functional recapitulation of a likely evolutionary gain in gene expression shows that two genes are sufficient to switch mesoderm cell internalization from stochastic cell ingression to coordinated epithelial invagination.