The evolution of insect patterning mechanisms: a survey of progress and problems in comparative molecular embryology

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Abstract
This report surveys data and interpretations presented by speakers in the Arthropod Session of the 1994 BSDB Spring Symposium. After a short review of phylogenetical aspects in premolecular insect embryology, the following topics are discussed: the ancestral germ type of pterygote insects, correlations between oogenesis and embryonic pattern formation, the universality or otherwise of bicoid as the anterior morphogen, novel functions in the insect Hox complex, the formal asymmetry between evolution and decay of complex gene networks, novel regulatory interactions as the main cause of evolutive changes, the repeated activity of conserved gene networks in successive steps of ontogenesis and strategies for future research. Interspersed are some unpublished data on oogenesis and pattern formation in lower dipterans, and their possible evolutionary implications.