Naming Genes: What's in a Name?

In 1594, Juliet asserted in Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet" and certainly words have layers of meanings and associations that not only Shakespeare could devise. And so it is with those naming genes, on the forefront of which are those looking at fly genes, particularly of Drosophila in FlyBase. In this delightful report from the BBC World Service's Discovery, we find out what these scientists are really thinking about as they sort through piles of flies, looking for visual verification of potential genetic anomalies: how might they name their next big discovery. Traditions are born in various laboratories for the sometimes quirky, usually informative names bestowed upon new discoveries--will the gene naming equivalant of the Académie française clamp down on this populist movement? The fly geneticists say no!

Thanks to Karyla for this great find!!

7th International Congress of Dipterology

The first announcement for the 7th International Congress of Dipterology (or IDC7 for short) was just released and the venue and program promise to be spectacular! The Congress Chairman, FLYTREE's own David Yeates, welcomes conferees to the first Diptera Congress in Latin America, from 8-13 August in San Jose, Costa Rica. Manuel Zumbado chairs the organizing committee for this event that will draw those interested in flies from across the globe.

FLYTREE scientists identify the closest relatives of the flies!

FLYTREE scientists resolve holometabolan insect phylogeny and identify the closest relatives of the Diptera

Wiegmann, B. M., M D. Trautwein, J. Kim, M. Bertone, S. L. Winterton, B. K. Cassel, and D. K. Yeates. (2009). Single-copy nuclear genes resolve the phylogeny of the holometabolous insect orders. BMC Biology 7:34.http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/7/34

A new paper published this month by FLYTREE ATOL scientists proposes a new phylogeny among the holometabolous insect orders and places Diptera as sister group to the Mecoptera  + Siphonaptera.  

Combined nucleotide data from 6 nuclear genes provides strong evidence for an early split between Hymenoptera and all other Holometabola and places the Strepsiptera as sister group to beetles (Coleoptera), arguing against previous molecular and developmental hypotheses.

These new data are used to estimates the evoutionary age of splits among the major insect orders including Diptera.. which had their origin in the Permian or earliest Triassic approximately 255 mya.

These exciting results are featured on the 'front page' of BMC Biology and are accompanied by an essay by Dr. Alessandro Minelli on the importance of robust phylogenetic understanding for accurate interpretation of developmental pathways and patterns.

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/7/36

Supertrees & the Tree of Life

Just published in Invertebrate Systematics is the journal's featured paper:

Lambkin C.L., Trueman J.W.H., Yeates D.K., Holston K.C., Webb D.W., Hauser M., Metz M.A., Hill H.N., Skevington J.H., Yang L., Irwin M.E., Wiegmann B.M. (2009) Supertrees and the Tree of Life: generating a metaphylogeny for a diverse invertebrate family (Insecta : Diptera : Therevidae) using constraint trees and the parsimony ratchet to overcome low taxon overlap. Invertebrate Systematics 23, 171–191.

See the abstract at http://www.publish.csiro.au/nid/120/paper/IS08035.htm and don't forget to also check out the beautiful cover of this issue, which sports J. Marie Metz's amazing illustration of a xestomyzine therevid, Henicomyia sp., from Guatemala.

Contact Christine.LambkinATqm.qld.gov.au for a copy of this landmark paper.

Milichiid flies caught mugging ants

Who knew flies could be thugs? Once again, Alex Wild has caught flies in the act, this time robbing ants of their food in Kwazulu-Natal. Read the details and see the marvelous photography in this blog post, which features FLYTREE collaborator, Irina Brake, as the Milichiidae expert!

Phorid Flies Provide Death from the Skies

Featured in ScienceBlog's first monthly rotating photo blog, Photo Synthesis, is Alex Wild, whose photography of the insect world, and ants in particular is worthy of insect centerfolds. In this particular entry, he captures phorid flies (Pseudacteon sp.) trolling a fire ant colony for a candidate whose head will roll...

Diptera Diversity: Status, Challenges and Tools

Published today, this new 460 page book, Diptera Diversity: Status, Challenges and Tools was edited by Thomas Pape, Daniel Bickel, and Rudolf Meier and features chapters by many of the FLYTREE principal investigators and collaborators. The concept for this much anticipated book grew out of the 2002 International Congress of Dipterology in Brisbane, Australia. It features sections on regional diversity of Diptera fauna; case studies, ecological approaches & estimation; and bioinformatics and dipteran diversity (pdf of table of contents).