Pax6 homologs are required for patterning both visual systems of the daddy-longlegs Phalangium opilio
Ethan M Laumer, Sophie M Neu, Benjamin C Klementz, Pranil Panda, Emily V W Setton, Prashant P Sharma, Ilya Ruvinsky · 2026
Read Pax6 homologs are required for patterning both visual systems of the daddy-longlegs Phalangium opilio by Ethan M Laumer, Sophie M Neu, Benjamin C Klementz, Pranil Panda, Emily V W Setton, Prashant P Sharma, Ilya Ruvinsky (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13591056.txt.
Description
The authors test which genes pattern the eyes of the daddy longlegs, a harvestman with an ancient layout of three eye pairs. Across animals, Pax6 family genes sit atop the eye-building network, but in well-studied spiders and kin their role looked lost, and a relative, Pax2, was suspected of taking over. The team mapped Pax genes across the chelicerate family tree and silenced them one by one in the harvestman.
The Pax6 copies, called eyeless and twin of eyeless, switched on early in the head, while Pax2 did not. Silencing any single gene changed nothing visible. Silencing both Pax6 copies together, though, damaged or erased all three eye pairs. The authors conclude the old Pax6 role is intact in this animal, and that shifts in timing, not in gene function, explain the odd patterns seen in spiders.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Ethan M Laumer, Sophie M Neu, Benjamin C Klementz, Pranil Panda, Emily V W Setton, Prashant P Sharma, Ilya Ruvinsky |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 63 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |