title: Dissection of the faint little ball (flb) phenotype: determination of the development of the Drosophila central nervous system by early interactions in the ectoderm.
abstract: The complex embryonic phenotype of mutations in the faint little ball (flb) locus, encoding the Drosophila EGF receptor homolog (DER), was dissected by temperature shifts of a temperature-sensitive allele. We show that the phenotype can be resolved into at least five components, which are temporally and spatially distinct. Most notably, the central nervous system (CNS) phenotype is determined at two separate phases. A severe collapse results from early defects in the DER-expressing ectodermal cells from which neuroblasts and midline glial cells deaminate. We thus suggest that DER activity is crucial for interactions that occur in the ectoderm at an early stage, and determine the fate of neuronal and glial cell lineages. This finding explains how a severe CNS phenotype is generated in flb embryos, in spite of the absence of expression of the protein in neuronal cells. In a second phase, during germ band retraction, the flb function is required specifically in the three pairs of midline glial cells (MG). In the absence of a functional DER protein, these cells die or fail to differentiate correctly, resulting in a fused commissure phenotype.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Genetics and Virology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Raz
authors.forename: B Z
authors.initials: BZ
authors.lastname: Shilo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002490:Central Nervous System / Q000196:embryology*; D004330:Drosophila / Q000196:embryology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000648:ultrastructure; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D004475:Ectoderm / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D066246:ErbB Receptors / Q000502:physiology; D005796:Genes / Q000235:genetics*; D008648:Mesoderm / Q000502:physiology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics; D010641:Phenotype; D011494:Protein Kinases; D011505:Protein-Tyrosine Kinases / Q000502:physiology; D018010:Receptors, Invertebrate Peptide
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D018010:Receptors, Invertebrate Peptide; D011494:Protein Kinases; C066532:Egfr protein, Drosophila; D066246:ErbB Receptors; D011505:Protein-Tyrosine Kinases