Red+Flour+Beetle+-+The+Model+Beetle

//**Tribolium castaneum**//

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Subphylum: Hexapoda Class: Insecta Order: Coleoptera Family: Tenebrionidae Genus: //Tribolium// Species: //T. castaneum//
 * Taxonomy**

//Tribolium castaneum// (red flour beetles) are an important model organism for research. The factors that make the a good model organism are: the extensive genetic knowledge and ease of genetic analysis, short life cycle, high fecundity, and application of genetic crosses (Richards et al. 2008). They have been used in a wide variety of studies with topics such as commonly found bacteria in arthropods (Werren 1997), segment specification in insects (von Dassow et al. 2000), and multilevel selection (Goodnight 2005).



//Drosophila// are probably the most well-known model organism for insects. This is likely due to the basic Mendelian genetics experiments done on some species of //Drosophila//. However, there are some indications that show advantages of using //Tribolium// rather than //Drosophila// as a model organism which Richards et al. (2008) study points out. Some lineages of //Drosophila// have undergone accelerated evolution which makes those lineages atypical of insects. Odor reception has also seemed to be selected for rather than sight in //Tribolium// which allows for different types of experiments to be done. This olfactory selection also highlights the value of the more ancestral and simpler eyes of //Tribolium//.
 * //Tribolium// vs. //Drosophila// **


 * Studies involving //T. castaneum://**



//T. castaneum// are a known pest of stored grains and grain products in the tropics (Liu and Ho 1999). Much research has been done on //T. castaneum// to find ways to control them as grain pests. As human culture is heavily reliant on agriculture, methods to control as many insects as possible is a very high interest. Essential oils have been found to effect //T. castaneum// populations (Liu and Ho 1999), which are an alternative to synthetic pesticides.
 * Agricultural Pests**



//**Wolbachia**// //Wolbachia// are bacteria that are found the in the reproductive tissues in arthropods. These bacteria can cause parthenogenesis induction and feminization of males. It is widespread being found in over 16% of insects (Werren et al. 1995). //Wolbachia// is of interest because of several reasons: the evolutionary aspects due to the wide-range of hosts and wide-range of effects on hosts, the alteration of early development and mitotic processes, and as a use of biological control.

Page created by Mengedoht, D.

**Literature Cited**: GOODNIGHT, C. J. 2005. Multilevel selection: the evolution of cooperation in non-kin groups. Population Ecology 47:3-12.

LIU, Z. L., AND S. H. HO. 1999. Bioactivity of the essential oil extracted from //Evodia rutaecarpa// Hook f. et Thomas against the grain storage insects, //Sitophilus zeamais// Motsch and //Tribolium castaneum// (Herbst). Journal of Stored Products Research 35:317-328.

RICHARDS, S., R. A. GIBBS, G. M. WEINSTOCK, S. J. BROWN, ... TRIBOLIUM GENOME SEQUENCING. 2008. The genome of the model beetle and pest //Tribolium castaneum//. Nature 452:949-955.

VON DASSOW, G., E. MEIR, E. M. MUNRO, AND G. M. ODELL. 2000. The segment polarity network is a robust development module. Nature 406:188-192.

WERREN, J. H. 1997. Biology of Wolbachia. Annual Review of Entomology 42:587-609.

WERREN, J. H., D. WINDSOR, AND L. R. GUO. 1995. DISTRIBUTION OF //WOLBACHIA// AMONG NEOTROPICAL ARTHROPODS. Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences 262:197-204.

Figure 1 http://www.genome.gov/pressDisplay.cfm?photoID=87
 * Figure Sources**:

Figure 2 http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01689/Red-Flour-beetle_1689999i.jpg

Figure 3 http://www.psmicrographs.co.uk/_assets/uploads/fruit-fly-eye--drosophila-melanogaster--80200019-l.jpg

Figure 4 http://old.padil.gov.au/pbt/files/uall/TC_adults4.jpg

Figure 5 http://bordensteinlab.vanderbilt.edu/gallery/Tribolium%20confusum.jpg [Edited]