Chironomid midges: A forgotten model of developmental biology research

Abstract

For more than a century, embryologists have been exploring various model systems to gain insights into developmental processes. This article presents an overview of the role of chironomid midges in embryology research since their introduction as model organisms in the 19th century. We present the vestiges of bibliography since the days of Weismann (1834-1914), who raised preliminary queries to unravel many unique features of insect embryogenesis using midges as a crucible. Unfortunately, over the years, chironomid midges got lost into obscurity as a model for developmental biology, which is evident from the paucity of developmental biology-related literature on midges in the past decades. Through this essay, the authors intend to share reminiscences of the heydays of chironomid research with the wider community of zoologists with an aim of reviving chironomid embryology. Midges not only possess the basic qualities essential for an ideal model system, but being one of the ancestral dipteran stocks, they can also prove an excellent test system for evo-devo, transgenetic, and embryogenomic investigations that utilize methodologies at the interface of developmental biology and high-throughput molecular genetic and genomics approach. An introspection of re-introducing chironomid midgesas model system will be rewarding for the contemporary developmental biologists. © 2011 The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.