Chironomus riparius

The common midge Chironomus riparius represents the mosquito branch of lower dipterans but does not sting. It is common in North America and Europe and rather easy to maintain as a laboratory culture. Chironomus ripariushas a long history in biological research, going back to the late 1800s (Sander 2000). The genome has been sequenced (Opphold et al. 2017).

Chironomus riparius. Source: Antonello Fardella/ANFAROFOTO.IT

1st instar larva of C. riparius (Photo: U. Schmidt-Ott).

First instar C. riparius larva following knockdown of panish (Klomp et al. 2015) results in a double abdomen phenotype.

Selected Publications

Embryo development. A cysteine-clamp gene drives embryo polarity in the midge Chironomus. Klomp J, Athy D, Kwan CW, Bloch NI, Sandmann T, Lemke S, Schmidt-Ott U. Science. 2015; 348(6238):1040-2. PMID:25953821, PMCID:PMC4449817
Chironomus riparius (Diptera) genome sequencing reveals the impact of minisatellite transposable elements on population divergence. Oppold AM, Schmidt H, Rose M, Hellmann SL, Dolze F, Ripp F, Weich B, Schmidt-Ott U, Schmidt E, Kofler R, Hankeln T, Pfenninger M. Molecular Ecology. 2017; 26(12):3256-3275. PMID: 28316106
Folded gastrulation and T48 drive the evolution of coordinated mesoderm internalization in flies. Urbansky S, González Avalos P, Wosch M, Lemke S. Elife. 2016 Sep 29;5. pii: e18318. doi: 10.7554/eLife.18318. PMID:27685537
Germ line transformation and in vivo labeling of nuclei in Diptera: report on Megaselia abdita (Phoridae) and Chironomus riparius (Chironomidae). Caroti F, Urbansky S, Wosch M, Lemke S. Dev Genes Evol. 2015 Jun;225(3):179-86. doi: 10.1007/s00427-015-0504-5. Epub 2015 Jun 5. PMID: 26044750
Extremely small genomes in two unrelated dipteran insects with shared early developmental traits. Schmidt-Ott U, Rafiqi AM, Sander K, Johnston JS. Development Genes and Evolution. 2009; 219(4):207-10. PMID:19308443
Chironomus embryology in the 19^th century: Insights and errors of its pioneers, especially August Weismann (1834-1914), and some 20^thcentury sequels. Sander K (2000). In: Odwin Hoffrichter (ed) Late 20^th century research in Chironomidae: an anthology from the 13^th international symposium on Chironomidae. Aachen, Shaker Verlag, pp 1-16.