Pattern Formation in the Wing of Drosophila

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9723564 Blair In recent years a great deal of information has been accumulated concerning patterning of growing appendages in Drosophila. The variety of genetic and molecular manipulations possible in Drosophila are unmatched. Interestingly, many of the signalling pathways used in Drosophila are conserved in vertebrates, often in very similar patterning situations. However, there are still huge gaps in our understanding of these patterning events, and this project outlines three ongoing projects seeking to fill some of those gaps. The wing of Drosophila develops from the wing imaginal disc, a small epthelial sac. During the extensive proliferative phase of disc development cell lineages are for the most part unfixed and cells utilized cell-cell interactions to determine their positions and take on appropriate fates. The compartment boundaries, however, are exceptions to this rule; these act as lineage restrictions, preventing intermixing between adjacent cells in the disc epithelium. The first aim of this proposal is to examine the basis of compartmentalization, exploiting some exciting new data which indicates a role for intercompartmental, Hedgehog based signalling in maintaining the A/P boundary. Because there is much not understood about the pathway by which Hedgehog signals from the posterior to the anterior compartment, the second aim of this proposal is to continue investigating the role of shifted, a putative member of the Hh signalling pathway. Finally, local patterning also depends on more local interactions to define particular tissue types, such as the specialized epithelial cells that secrete the thickened cuticle of the veins. The last aim of this proposal is to examine the vein-intervein subdivision, and in particular the role of crossveinless genes is specifying the anterior and posterior cross veins.