MetazExp-Summary

Tribolium castaneum

The red flour beetle (Tribolium castaneum) is a species of beetle in the family Tenebrionidae, the darkling beetles. It is a worldwide pest of stored products, particularly food grains, and a model organism for ethological and food safety research.
The red flour beetle attacks stored grain and other food products including flour, cereals, pasta, biscuits, beans, and nuts, causing loss and damage. The United Nations, in a recent post-harvest compendium, estimated that Tribolium castaneum and Tribolium confusum, the confused flour beetle, are the two most common secondary pests of all pla... Click to show allThe red flour beetle (Tribolium castaneum) is a species of beetle in the family Tenebrionidae, the darkling beetles. It is a worldwide pest of stored products, particularly food grains, and a model organism for ethological and food safety research.
The red flour beetle attacks stored grain and other food products including flour, cereals, pasta, biscuits, beans, and nuts, causing loss and damage. The United Nations, in a recent post-harvest compendium, estimated that Tribolium castaneum and Tribolium confusum, the confused flour beetle, are the two most common secondary pests of all plant commodities in store throughout the world.
The red flour beetle is of Indo-Australian origin and less able to survive outdoors than the closely related species Tribolium confusum. It has, as a consequence, a more southern distribution, though both species are worldwide in heated environments. The adult is long-lived, sometimes living more than three years. Although previously regarded as a relatively sedentary insect, it has been shown in molecular and ecological research to disperse considerable distances by flight.
Female red flour beetles are polyandrous in mating behavior. Within a single copulation period, a single female will mate with multiple different males. Female red flour beetles engage in polyandrous mating behavior in order to increase their fertility assurance. By mating with an increased number of males, female beetles obtain a greater amount of sperm. Obtaining a greater amount of sperm is especially important since many sexually active male red flour beetles are non-virgins and may be sperm-depleted. The species engages in polyandry to obtain a greater amount of sperm from males, not to increase the likelihood of finding genetically compatible sperm.
Multiple mating events can ensure that females obtain a greater net amount of sperm, resulting in an increased likelihood of successful fertilization. In nature, repeated matings could result in males that have a low sperm count. Due to the males' low sperm count, a female may need to mate with several males before being successfully inseminated.
Although multiple mating events may result in an increased likelihood for finding genetically compatible sperm, genetic compatibility cannot always be considered a major fitness advantage for polyandrous behavior. The increased viability of embryos—due to increased genetic compatibility—did not significantly increase the number of adult beetles over time, and therefore, did not play a significant role in the fitness of the overall population. However, increased genetic compatibility could increase the genetic diversity of the population, which maybe useful in various different environments. High genetic diversity within a population can lead to high phenotypic variation, which can subsequently enable some variants to better survive and reproduce given a sudden environmental change.

[More Details from Wikipedia]

Genome

Assembly version	IWGSC(Ensembl)
Original gene/transcript	17052/18996
Improved transcript	13216
Improved exons	77115
Improved splices	74940
Alternative splicing events	24908

Loading 902 experiments

Studies