Faculty Bibliography

Localization of the maternally synthesized nanos (nos) RNA to the posterior pole of the Drosophila embryo provides the source for a posterior-to-anterior gradient of Nos protein. Correct spatial regulation of nos activity is essential for normal pattern formation. High local concentrations of Nos protein in the posterior of the embryo are necessary to inhibit translation of the transcription factor Hunchback in this region, and thus permit expression of genes required for abdomen formation (see ref. 5 for review). By contrast, misexpression of Nos protein at the anterior of the embryo prevents translation of the anterior morphogen Bicoid, suppressing head and thorax development. Posterior localization of nos RNA is mediated by sequences within the nos 3' untranslated region (3'UTR) and requires the function of eight genes of the 'posterior group'. Although the unlocalized nos RNA is stable in embryos from females mutant for any of the posterior group genes, these embryos appear to lack nos activity because they develop the abdominal defects characteristic of embryos produced by nos mutant females. We report here that unlocalized nos RNA is translationally repressed. Translational repression is mediated by the nos 3'UTR and can be alleviated either by replacement of the 3'UTR with heterologous 3'UTR sequences or by posterior localization. Thus, RNA localization provides a novel mechanism for translational regulation

The oskar gene directs germ plasm assembly and controls the number of germ cell precursors formed at the posterior pole of the Drosophila embryo. Mislocalization of oskar RNA to the anterior pole leads to induction of germ cells at the anterior. Of the eight genes necessary for germ cell formation at the posterior, only three, oskar, vasa and tudor, are essential at an ectopic site

Embryos of Drosophila melanogaster were irradiated in the presumptive head region with a UV-laser microbeam of 20 .mu.m diameter at two development stages, the cellular blastoderm and the extended germ band. The ensuing defects were scored in the cuticle pattern of the head of the first-instar larva, which is described in detail in this paper. The defects caused by irradiating germ band embryos when morphologically recognisable lobes appear in the head region were used to establish the segmental origin of various head structures. This information enabled us to translate the spatial distribution of blastoderm defects into a fate map of segment anlagen. the gnathal segments derive from a region of the blastoderm between 60% and 70% egg length (EL) dorsally and 60% and 80% ventrally. The area anterior to the mandibular anlage and posterior to the stomadaeum is occupied by the small anlagen of the intercalary and antennal segments ventrally and dorsally, resepctively. The labrum, which originates from a paired anlage dorsally at 90% EL, is separated from the remaining head segments by an area for which we did not observe cuticle defects following blastoderm irradiation, presumably because those cells give rise to the brain. The dorsal and lateral parts of the cephalo-paryngeal skeleton appear to be the only cuticle derivatives of the non-segmental acron. These structures derive from a dorso-lateral area just behind the putative brain anlage and may overlap the latter. In addition to the segment anlagen, the regions of the presumptive dorsal pouch, anterior lobe and post-oral epithelium, whose morphogenetic movements during head involution result in the characteristic acephalic appearance of the larva, have been projected onto the blastoderm fate map. The results suggest that initially the head of the Drosophila embryo does not differ substantially from the generalised insect head as judged by comparison of fate map and segmental organisation

The central nervous system (CNS) ofDrosophila develops from precursor cells called neuroblasts. Neuroblasts segregate in early embryogenesis from an apparantly undifferentiated ectoderm and move into the embryo, whereas most of the remaining ectodermal cells continue development as epidermal cell precursors. Segregation of neuroblasts occurs within a region called the neurogenic field. We are interested in understanding how the genome ofDrosophila controls the parcelling of the ectoderm into epidermal and neural territories. We describe here mutations belonging to seven complementation groups which effect an abnormal neurogenesis. The phenotypes produced by these mutations are similar. Essential features of these phenotypes are a conspicuous hypertrophy of the CNS accompanied by epidermal defects; the remaining organs and tissues of the mutants are apparently unaffected. The study of mutant phenotype development strongly suggests this phenotype to be due to misrouting into the neural pathway of development of ectodermal cells which in the wildtype would have given rise to epidermal cells, i.e. to an initial enlargement of the neurogenic region at the expense of the epidermogenic region. These observations indicate that the seven genetic loci revealed by the mutations described in this study contribute to control the neurogenic field. The present results suggest that in wildtype development neurogenic genes are supressed within all derivatives of the mesoderm and endoderm and some derivatives of the ectoderm, and conditionally expressed in the remaining ectoderm. The organisation of the neurogenic field in the wildtype is discussed.

Embryonic lethal mutations at the Notch locus are known to produce a conspicuous central nervous system hypertrophy accompanied by a hypotrophy of the epidermal sheath. We have studied several zygotic mutants belonging to four different autosomal complementation groups which produce the same phenotype. The embryonic development of the new mutants, as well as that of Notch, consists of an initial enlargement of the neurogenic region at the expenses of epidermal cell precursors. The possibility is discussed that these five loci are involved in the determination of neural and epidermal cell precursors.