Hunting ecology predicts eye arrangements in the modular visual system of spiders

Posted by
  Hunting ecology predicts eye arrangements in the modular visual system of spiders Summary Vision is one of the most important senses used by animals and contributes to fundamental behaviors, including foraging, navigation, and mate detection and selection. 1 Although much is known about how eye position and orientation correlate to ecology in the context of binocularity, 2 animals with multipartite visual systems (more than two eyes) remain comparatively neglected. Spiders are highly successful predators that occupy a range of ecological niches and usually possess eight eyes. Here, we use three-dimensional geometric morphometrics and evolutionary modeling to test whether eye positions, orientations, and interocular angles correlate with hunting strategies in 52 species across the spider phylogeny. We demonstrate that eye configurations diversified from an ancestral medial cluster, as seen in modern trapdoor spiders, to a halo-like configuration in orb-weavers, and to the fronta...

An ancient genome duplication event drives the development and evolution of spinnerets in spiders

Posted by

 

By Jason7825 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=39731828

An ancient genome duplication event drives the development and evolution of spinnerets in spiders

Abstract

Key appendage innovations have driven the origin and expansion of arthropods, such as spinnerets enabling spiders to occupy three-dimensional space and diversify into more than 53,000 species. Here, we investigate the genetic basis of spinneret emergence in spiders by examining the complex history and functional importance of arachnid genome evolution. Using chromosome-scale genomes from newly sequenced spiders and the whip scorpion, we integrate evidence from macrosynteny and phylogenetic analyses to provide further strong support for a whole-genome duplication (WGD) event that occurred during early Arachnopulmonata evolution. Following this event, the abdominal-A gene pair not only exhibits functional divergence but also jointly facilitates the emergence of spinnerets. Furthermore, we integrated single-cell transcriptomic analyses and functional validation to confirm that the dachshund-1 gene also regulates spinneret development. The network of duplicated gene pairs may form a cornerstone in the origin and evolution of key morphological traits, revealing that the long-term effects of ancient WGDs on innovation and diversification also occurred in arthropods.
Li, F., Yang, H., Zhang, Y., Wang, S., Gu, Q., Wu, M., Jin, P., Huang, X., Zhong, Y., Huang, X., Lin, Y., Guo, X., Li, Y., Zhang, W., & Li, S. (2026). An ancient genome duplication event drives the development and evolution of spinnerets in spiders. Science Advances. https://doi.org/adw2173