Eric Wieschaus (Princeton) Part 3: Evolution of Bicoid-based Patterning in the Diptera

www.ibiology.o...
Although Bcd plays an essential role of Drosophila development, it is a recently evolved addition to the higher Dipteran lineage. In the final section of my lecture I will discuss how Bcd has continued to provide robust positional information in higher diptera as specific features such as egg size change during evolution. See more at www.ibioseminar...

[@stefannica]

Thank you, Dr. Wieschaus for this very instructive and interesting presentation !
I'm no evolutionary biologist, my field of work being IT, and I don't even consider myself as exceptionally bright. That being said, it would still seem to me that some of the questions raised in your video would be more easily answered by mixing common sense and a basic understanding of evolution. For example, consider the probability that an increase in egg size due to a random genetic mutation could be accompanied by another, too fortunate mutation of the Bicoid protein that would allow the gradient to be scaled in size in exact accord with the egg size increase. That would be practically impossible ! By the middle of your presentation I could already deduce, albeit by means of intuition alone, that Bicoid isn't the differing factor, nor are the gene sensitivity thresholds, but rather some property of the egg's cytoplasm itself.
Moreover, I highly expect that this property of the cytoplasm that allows the Bicoid gradient to be preserved over a range of egg sizes hasn't itself evolved and doesn''t differ from one Dipterum to another. It is more probable given the nature of evolution that this property is common in all Diptera and furthermore that it is a property that itself scales linearly with egg size.
I would love to follow on recent developments concerning this mystery. Understanding just how immensely complex life is just fills me with fascination.

[@ButtHoleSurfer87o]

Eric may I come and work in your lab? This is fucking fantastic.

[@Emily-di6mn]

Eric: The bigger filies are the uglier ones, the smaller flies are nicer and sweeter, generally.
Drosophila: I am happy to hear that before I was killed in your lab :)
Me: I am working on root nodule development in legume. Inspired by your videos a lot! Thanks Eric!