# Chicago team shows moth-fly odd-paired gene sets head-tail axis like bicoid

_Friday, August 7, 2026 at 11:40 AM EDT · Science · Latest · Tier 2 — Notable_

![Chicago team shows moth-fly odd-paired gene sets head-tail axis like bicoid — Primary](https://scx2.b-cdn.net/gfx/news/hires/2026/different-genes-same-r.jpg)

University of Chicago researchers report in PLOS Biology that the moth fly Clogmia albipunctata uses the zic-family gene odd-paired as an anterior determinant, establishing the head-to-tail body axis through a mechanism different from Drosophila's bicoid gene.

In fruit flies, bicoid controls anterior patterning but exists only in some fly species. In 2019, Urs Schmidt-Ott and colleagues identified other conserved genes that took on the same job in other flies, an example of developmental system drift in which gene networks diverge while the head-tail outcome remains.

The new work, with Ezra Amiri and co-workers, finds that Clogmia odd-paired initiates anterior patterning by opening chromatin and activating transcription at the homeobrain and sloppy-paired loci. Schmidt-Ott's lab is using new genetic tools across fly species to test how such substitutions rewire embryonic gene networks downstream. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003896.

## Sources

- [phys.org](https://phys.org/news/2026-08-genes-result-flies-evolved-multiple.html)

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