Scientists have done something with the species of house spider, Daddy Long Legs, that no one probably has ever seen before. By tinkering with the DNA of Daddy Long Leg Spiders, the researchers have developed ‘Daddy Short legs’ individuals.
Some find the Daddy Long Leg spiders attractive, while others find them extremely disturbing. Regardless of how people feel, daddy long leg spiders can be easily spotted scurrying up a wall or through its web someplace. However, the familiar spider species is not harmful at all.
Scientists curated the ‘Daddy Short Legs’ with the goal of studying the evolutionary process that causes their legs to grow so far out in the natural circumstances.
How Daddy Long Spider’s legs became short?Guilherme Gainett of the Wisconsin-Madison University along with his team of researchers primarily traced the genome of ‘Phalangium Opilio’ which is technically not a spider but a close relative. As per Macroecology of Harvestman Mating System, ‘Phalangium Opilio’ is thought to be among the most widespread of more than 6,000 different species of daddy long legs noted worldwide. According to Unilad, the scientists used an RNA interference approach to turn off effectively a pair of genes that is involved in leg development in hundreds of daddy-long-legs embryos. Six of the animals’ eight legs were roughly half the size of their natural, un-engineered counterparts because of the procedure. Gainett explained that the genome of the daddy long legs has a lot of potentials to explain the complicated history of the spider genome evolution and the body design and in revealing how the Daddy Long Legs spiders get their distinctive feature. |
How it will help in developing genetics?
As per the researchers, the study on Long legs spiders will aid in the development of more advanced functional genetics techniques.
Gainett said that they are interested in figuring out how the genes give birth to the unique arachnid characteristics such as scorpion pinchers and spider fangs and in using the genome for creating the first transgenic harvestmen.
The recent study will help the researchers in tracking the evolution of ‘Phalangium Opilio’ and other arachnids in the future also determining if the long and spindly legs developed individually in each group of arthropods.
Researchers have also noted that the efficacy of the single and double RNAi in this system offers ‘Phalangium Opilio’ an appropriate point of reference for the future research of arachnid body plan evolution.
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