#IDIBELLseminars: New eyes and other wonders of mayflies

Mayflies are a key order to understanding the evolution of insects due to their phylogenetic position. Within this lineage, the family of Baetidae has evolved a striking sexual dimorphism: in addition to the lateral compound eyes, males develop an extra pair of extremely large dorsal, turban-shaped eyes. Thus, by comparing males versus females, these insects a privileged system to understand the origin and integration of new visual structures.
For this, we have successfully established the mayfly Cloeon dipterum as a model species with a continuous culture in the lab and a high-quality reference genome that allows as describe the development of the eye and its integration with the optic lobes of male and female Cloeon nymphs using confocal and electronic microscopy. Furthermore, we compare sex-specific gene expression in nymphal heads at single cell resolution, to show a set of candidate genes specifically expressed in male cell populations. Together with ATAC-seq and CRISPR/Cas we uncover the GRN responsible for the origin of this new visual system.

Hosted by Ana Mendez – Cellular and molecular basis of sensory disorders group

Born in Zaragoza, she studied Biology at the University of Barcelona, where she later also completed her doctoral thesis working with the fruit fly as a model organism.
After finishing his doctorate, he carried out postdoctoral stays at the ETH-Zürich, in Switzerland, at Oxford Brookes University, UK, and at the Andalusian Center for Developmental Biology in Seville.
In 2021, she established her laboratory at the University of Barcelona thanks to the Beatriz Galindo program of the Ministry of Universities. Since then, his laboratory has obtained funding from the Ministry of Science and Innovation, the BBVA Foundation, through a Leonardo Grant and from the European Commission, with an ERC Consolidator Grant 2021.
His research is focused on understanding the genomic bases that control the appearance of new organs and structures in animals during evolution and how these evolutionary novelties have influenced the radiation of certain groups of animals, with a particular focus on the evolution of winged insects, the most diverse and numerous group of animals on the planet.