Chorion Genes: A Landscape of Their Evolution, Structure, and Regulation

Differential regulation at the level of transcription provides a means for controlling gene expression in eukaryotes, especially during development. Insect model systems have been extensively used to decipher the molecular basis of such regulatory cascades, and one of the oldest such model systems is the regulation of chorion gene expression during ovarian follicle maturation. Recent experimental and technological advances have shed new light onto the system, allowing us to revisit it. Thus, in this review we try to summarize almost 40 years' worth of studies on chorion gene regulation while—by comparing Bombyx mori and Drosophila melanogaster models—attempting to present a comprehensive, unified model of the various regulatory aspects of choriogenesis that takes into account the evolutionary conservation and divergence of the underlying mechanisms.