Kenny Kim (@nextstrain.bsky.social)

New Preprint!! 🦐🪰🦀 In this study we compared moulting gene expression across insects and crustaceans. #insects #crustaceans Thread ⬇️ (1/6) https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.15.699689v2

Ancient Fossil Resolves Century-Old Arthropod Evolution Mystery | Geekoo

A 500-million-year-old fossil has finally resolved a century-old debate on arthropod evolution. Discover how *Erratus sperare* bridges the gap between ancient lobopodians and modern arthropods.

Venom gland organogenesis in the common house spider - Scientific Reports

Venom is a remarkable innovation found across the animal kingdom, yet the evolutionary origins of venom systems in various groups, including spiders, remain enigmatic. Here, we investigated the organogenesis of the venom apparatus in the common house spider, Parasteatoda tepidariorum. The venom apparatus consists of a pair of secretory glands, each connected to an opening at the fang tip by a duct that runs through the chelicerae. We performed bulk RNA-seq to identify venom gland-specific markers and assayed their expression using RNA in situ hybridisation experiments on whole-mount time-series. These revealed that the gland primordium emerges during embryonic stage 13 at the chelicera tip, progresses proximally by the end of embryonic development and extends into the prosoma post-eclosion. The initiation of expression of an important toxin component in late postembryos marks the activation of venom-secreting cells. Our selected markers also exhibited distinct expression patterns in adult venom glands: sage and the toxin marker were expressed in the secretory epithelium, forkhead and sum-1 in the surrounding muscle layer, while Distal-less was predominantly expressed at the gland extremities. Our study provides the first comprehensive analysis of venom gland morphogenesis in spiders, offering key insights into their evolution and development.

The moulting arthropod: a complete genetic toolkit review

EED2024 (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 image We are really excited to share the news that for the first time, EuroEvoDevo will have five satellite meetings @EED2024 Helsinki! Endless #EvoDevo most beautiful! Save the dates: 📅June 24 & 25, 2024: Satellites 📅June 25 – 28, 2024: Main EED Meeting Thanks to the organizers! More info soon on http://www.euroevodevo2024.fi