Induction of the R7 Neuron in the Drosophila Compound Eye: The bride of sevenless and sevenless Interaction
This extract was created in the absence of an abstract.
Excerpt
Cell-cell interactions play a central role in development from simple unicellular organisms to complex higher vertebrates. In multicellular organisms, these interactions must be exquisitely controlled to ensure that the right numbers and positions of different cell types are established during embryogenesis. Little is known about the molecular and cellular mechanisms regulating these processes. Which cells produce cues and what types of molecules are they? What cells are competent to respond to these cues and what is the molecular structure of the receptors? What are the mechanisms that regulate the number of cells which respond to an extracellular signal? We have chosen to address these questions in the context of the development of one neuronal cell type, the R7 neuron, in the compound eye of Drosophila melanogaster.
The compound eye comprises a hexagonal array of simple eyes, or ommatidia, each containing an essentially invariant number of cells. These include eight different...
