Pattern Formation in the Wing of Drosophila

Blair 0077912胚胎的正常发育需要特定组织类型的精确规格，而这种规格的失败是许多出生缺陷和先天性疾病的基础。 在发育过程中，组织和细胞之间的信号传递通常在这一过程中起着关键作用。 然而，许多重要信号通路的细节以及这些信号相互作用的方式仍然知之甚少。 该项目研究了由EGF，BMP和Wingless/Wnt途径介导的三种重要信号的控制和相互作用以指定一种组织类型的方式。 用于这项工作的模型系统是果蝇的翅膀。 这个模型系统有几个优点：果蝇的遗传和分子分析可能是任何其他动物都无法比拟的，果蝇翅膀发育的机制与人类和其他哺乳动物的机制有几个惊人的相似之处。 这项工作特别关注翅膀内静脉的发育，并提出通过表征影响该过程的突变来识别以前未发现的信号调节器。 目前已经对三种这样的突变进行了分析：crossveinless-2，crossveinless-3和detached。 初步工作表明，被crossveinless-2破坏的基因编码一种新的蛋白质，该蛋白质可能在静脉发育过程中通过与BMP配体本身结合来直接增强BMP样信号传导。

Blair0077912The normal development of embryos requires the precise specification of specific tissue types, and failures in that specification underlie many birth defects and congenital diseases. Signaling between tissues and cells during development often plays a critical role in this process. However, the details underlying many important signaling pathways, and the ways in which such signals interact, is still quite poorly understood. This project examines the way in which three important signals, those mediated by the EGF, BMP and Wingless/Wnt pathways, are controlled and interact to specify one tissue type. The model system used for this work is the wing of the fruitfly, Drosophila melanogaster. The advantages of this model system are several; the genetic and molecular analyses possible in Drosophila are perhaps unmatched by any other animal, and the mechanisms underlying development of the Drosophila wing shows several striking parallels with the mechanisms used in humans and other mammals. The work focuses specifically on the development of veins within the wing, and proposes the identification of previously undiscovered regulators of signaling by characterizing mutations that affect that process. Analyses are already underway on three such mutations: crossveinless-2, crossveinless-3, and detached. Preliminary work indicates that the gene disrupted by crossveinless-2 encodes a novel protein likely to directly potentiate BMP-like signaling during vein development by binding to the BMP ligand itself.