A blastoderm fate map of compartments and segments of the Drosophila head. 1981

G Struhl
MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 2QH, England.

The epidermis of the adult head of Drosophila is composed of the derivatives of three pairs of imaginal discs: the labial discs which form the proboscis, the cibarial discs which form the clypeolabrum, and the eye-antennal discs which form all of the remaining head structures (i.e., the eyes, antennae, head capsule, and maxillary palps). Both the proboscis and the eye-antenna are known to be subdivided into anterior and posterior compartments. This paper reports a gynandromorph fate map of the blastoderm primordia forming the compartments and segments of the adult head. The major results are: (1) For both the proboscis and eye-antenna, blastoderm cells giving rise to the anterior compartment are positioned anterior to cells giving rise to the posterior compartment. This result suggests that the relative anteroposterior position of blastoderm cells constitutes the positional basis for the segregation of anterior and posterior polyclones in different segments. (2) The clypeolabral primordium is adjacent and anterior to the eye-antennal primordium; the proboscis primordium is adjacent and anterior to the prothoracic primordium. Assuming that all segment primordia are of equal length in the blastoderm, the proboscis and eye-antennal primordia are separated by a gap in which three other segment primordia might fit. These results suggest that at the blastoderm stage, the Drosophila head consists of a series of six segment primordia of similar size.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D001756 Blastoderm A layer of cells lining the fluid-filled cavity (blastocele) of a BLASTULA, usually developed from a fertilized insect, reptilian, or avian egg. Blastoderms
D004330 Drosophila A genus of small, two-winged flies containing approximately 900 described species. These organisms are the most extensively studied of all genera from the standpoint of genetics and cytology. Fruit Fly, Drosophila,Drosophila Fruit Flies,Drosophila Fruit Fly,Drosophilas,Flies, Drosophila Fruit,Fly, Drosophila Fruit,Fruit Flies, Drosophila
D006257 Head The upper part of the human body, or the front or upper part of the body of an animal, typically separated from the rest of the body by a neck, and containing the brain, mouth, and sense organs. Heads
D000818 Animals Unicellular or multicellular, heterotrophic organisms, that have sensation and the power of voluntary movement. Under the older five kingdom paradigm, Animalia was one of the kingdoms. Under the modern three domain model, Animalia represents one of the many groups in the domain EUKARYOTA. Animal,Metazoa,Animalia

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