Trypoxylus dichotomus larval horn transcriptome

Beetle horns have been one of attracting models to study the evolution of novel traits, as they display diverse shape, size, and number among closely related species within the family Scarabaeidae. However, the mechanism underlying such explosive diversification has been elusive, mainly because the developmental information is restricted only in a genus Onthophagus. To investigate the mechanism that facilitate diversification of novel horns, we searched horn formation genes by comparing gene expression level between male and female, and between head and thorax horns in the horned beetle Trypoxylus dichotomus, which belongs to another genus Dynastinae.