Extramacrochaetae imposes order on the Drosophila eye by refining the activity of the Hedgehog signaling gradient.

ABSTRACT: The compound eye of Drosophila melanogaster is configured by a differentiating wave, the morphogenetic furrow, that sweeps across the eye imaginal disc and transforms thousands of undifferentiated cells into a precisely ordered repetitive array of 800 ommatidia. The initiation of the furrow at the posterior margin of the epithelium and its subsequent movement across the eye field is controlled by the activity of the Hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway. Differentiating photoreceptors that lie behind the furrow produce and secrete the Hh morphogen, which is captured by cells within the furrow itself. This leads to the stabilization of the full-length form of the zinc-finger transcription factor Cubitus interruptus (Ci(155)), the main effector of Hh signaling. Ci(155) functions as a transcription

SUBMITTER: Spratford CM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3631972 | biostudies-literature | 2013 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature