It's Okay To Be Smart

Painting Wings With CRISPR

Watch the video here

Butterfly metamorphosis is still a bit of a mystery. What happens inside a chrysalis to turn a caterpillar into a beautifully painted butterfly? Does it really turn to soup? I visited Dr. Arnaud Martin, who uses the CRISPR genetic modification technology to learn about how genes build bodies. Dr. Martin uses CRISPR to disrupt certain genes, and then looks for changes in butterfly wing patterns, creating designs we never see in nature. This tells us which genes control which part of the "wing painting" process. In the process of visiting his lab, I had my mind blown about what REALLY happens during butterfly metamorphosis. You will too.

Special thanks to:

• Dr. Arnaud Martin and the Martin Lab at George Washington University http://dnacrobatics.com
• Chrysalis "window" timelapses courtesy of Aaron Pomerantz in Dr. Nipam Patel's lab http://www.patellab.net/
• The "chrysalis window" technique was developed by Julian Kimura and Dr. Ryan Null as part of the Marine Biological Laboratory summer embryology program https://www.mbl.edu/education/courses/embryology/

References

High-resolution views of how butterfly wing scales are built

• Day, C. R., Hanly, J. J., Ren, A., & Martin, A. (2019). Sub‐micrometer insights into the cytoskeletal dynamics and ultrastructural diversity of butterfly wing scales. Developmental Dynamics.

Using CRISPR genetic modification to study the genetics of butterfly development

• Livraghi, L., Martin, A., Gibbs, M., Braak, N., Arif, S., & Breuker, C. J. (2018). CRISPR/Cas9 as the key to unlocking the secrets of butterfly wing pattern development and its evolution. In Advances in Insect Physiology (Vol. 54, pp. 85-115). Academic Press.

How genes like WntA and optix control butterfly wing patterning

• Mazo-Vargas, A., Concha, C., Livraghi, L., Massardo, D., Wallbank, R. W., Zhang, L., ... & Breuker, C. J. (2017). Macroevolutionary shifts of WntA function potentiate butterfly wing-pattern diversity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(40), 10701-10706.
• Zhang, L., Martin, A., Perry, M. W., van der Burg, K. R., Matsuoka, Y., Monteiro, A., & Reed, R. D. (2017). Genetic basis of melanin pigmentation in butterfly wings. Genetics, 205(4), 1537-1550.
• Zhang, L., Mazo-Vargas, A., & Reed, R. D. (2017). Single master regulatory gene coordinates the evolution and development of butterfly color and iridescence. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(40), 10707-10712.