Journal article

Publication year: 2006

Pages: 2-

Journal: Frontiers in Zoology

Volume number: 3

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1186/1742-9994-3-2

Publisher: BioMed Central

Abstract: 

In some arthropods there is a discrepancy in the number of dorsal
tergites compared to the number of ventral sternites and leg pairs. The
posterior tergites of the Diplopoda (millipedes) each cover two
sternites and two pairs of legs. This segment arrangement is called
diplosegmentation. The molecular nature of diplosegmentation is still
unknown. There are even conflicting theories on the way the tergites and
sternites/leg pairs should be correlated to each other. The different
theories are based either on embryological analyses or on studies of the
adult morphology and turned out to be not compatible with each other.
We have previously used the expression patterns of segmentation genes in
the pill millipede Glomeris marginata (Myriapoda: Diplopoda) to
study millipede segmentation. Here we review the existing models on the
alignment of tergites and leg pairs in millipedes with special emphasis
on the implications the gene expression data have on the debate of
tergite and leg pair assignment in millipedes. The remarkable outcome of
the gene expression analysis was that (1) there is no coupling of
dorsal and ventral segmentation and, importantly, that (2) the
boundaries delimiting the tergites do neither correlate to the embryonic
boundaries of the dorsal embryonic segments nor to the boundaries of
the ventral embryonic segments. Using these new insights, we critically
reinvestigated the correlation of tergites, sternites, and leg pairs in
millipedes. Our model, which takes into account that the tergite
boundaries are different from the dorsal embryonic segment boundaries,
provides a solution of the problem of tergite to sternite/leg pair
correlation in basal milipedes with non-fused exoskeletal elements and
also has implications for derived species with exoskeletal rings.
Moreover, lack of coupling of dorsal and ventral segmentation may also
explain the discrepancy in numbers of dorsal tergites and ventral leg
pairs seen in some other arthropods.

Harvard Citation style: Janssen, R., Prpic, N. and Damen, W. (2006) A review of the correlation of tergites, sternites, and leg pairs in diplopods, Frontiers in Zoology, 3, p. 2. https://doi.org/10.1186/1742-9994-3-2

APA Citation style: Janssen, R., Prpic, N., & Damen, W. (2006). A review of the correlation of tergites, sternites, and leg pairs in diplopods. Frontiers in Zoology. 3, 2. https://doi.org/10.1186/1742-9994-3-2