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Main Menu - Block
- Overview
- Anatomy and Histology
- Cryo-Electron Microscopy
- Electron Microscopy
- Flow Cytometry
- Gene Targeting and Transgenics
- Immortalized Cell Line Culture
- Integrative Imaging
- Invertebrate Shared Resource
- Janelia Experimental Technology
- Mass Spectrometry
- Media Prep
- Molecular Genomics
- Primary & iPS Cell Culture
- Project Pipeline Support
- Project Technical Resources
- Quantitative Genomics
- Scientific Computing Software
- Scientific Computing Systems
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- Vivarium
Note: Research in this publication was not performed at Janelia.
Abstract
The Drosophila retina is a crystalline array of 800 ommatidia whose organization and assembly suggest polarization of the retinal epithelium along anteroposterior and dorsoventral axes. The retina develops by a stepwise process following the posterior-to-anterior progression of the morphogenetic furrow across the eye disc. Ectopic expression of hedgehog or local removal of patched function generates ectopic furrows that can progress in any direction across the disc leaving in their wake differentiating fields of ectopic ommatidia. We have studied the effect of these ectopic furrows on the polarity of ommatidial assembly and rotation. We find that the anteroposterior asymmetry of ommatidial assembly parallels the progression of ectopic furrows, regardless of their direction. In addition, ommatidia developing behind ectopic furrows rotate coordinately, forming equators in various regions of the disc. Interestingly, the expression of a marker normally restricted to the equator is induced in ectopic ommatidial fields. Ectopic equators are stable as they persist to adulthood, where they can coexist with the normal equator. Our results suggest that ectopic furrows can impart polarity to the disc epithelium, regarding the direction of both assembly and rotation of ommatidia. We propose that these processes are polarized as a consequence of furrow propagation, while more global determinants of dorsoventral and anteroposterior polarity may act less directly by determining the site of furrow initiation.
PMID: 8575309 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
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