The object of study of the research group are the mechanisms that regulate the metamorphosis of insects , and how these mechanisms have evolved from ancestral species, with a gradual metamorphosis (like in cockroaches or locusts), to the most modified species, with a discontinuous metamorphosis (like in butterflies or flies). Therefore, the questions that the research group on the Evolution of insect metamorphosis seek to answer are: How did metamorphosis develop in insects? What endocrine and molecular mechanisms led to the evolutionary transition from gradual to discontinuous metamorphosis?
Lab website: Bellés Lab
Investigador principal
Miembros del grupo
Proyectos en curso
Publicaciones
Ventos A.; Ylla G. and Belles X. 2019. Zelda and the maternal-to-zygotic transition in cockroaches. The Febs Journal. doi: DOI: 10.1111/febs.14856
Kamsoi O.; Belles X. 2019. Myoglianin triggers the pre-metamorphosis stage in hemimetabolan insects.. the fased journal. doi: 10.1096/fj.201801511R
Ylla, G.; Piulachs, M.D.; Belles, X. 2018. Comparative Transcriptomics in Two Extreme Neopterans Reveals General Trends in the Evolution of Modern Insects. iScience:164-179 doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2018.05.017
Ylla, G; Piulachs, M.D; Belles, X. 2018. Clues about the evolution of insect metamorphosis revealed by comparative transcriptomics of hemimetabolan and holometabolan species. iScience (Cell Press). 4:164–179 doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2018.05.017.
Rubio, M.; Maestro, J.L., Piulachs, M.D.; Belles, X. (2018) Conserved association of Argonaute 1 and 2 proteins with miRNA and siRNA pathways throughout insect evolution, from cockroaches to flies. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta - Gene Regulatory Mechanisms. 1861(6):554-560 doi: 10.1016/j.bbagrm.2018.04.001