title: Metamorphosis of tangential visual system neurons in Drosophila.
abstract: To learn about construction of the adult nervous system, we studied the differentiation of imaginal neurons in the Drosophila visual system. OL2-A and OL3 are tangential neurons that display dFMRFa neuropeptide gene expression in adults but not in larvae. The two large OL2-A neurons are generated near the end of the embryonic period and already show morphological differentiation at the start of metamorphosis. The numerous small OL3 neurons are generated postembryonically and first detected later in metamorphosis. The onset of dFMRFa transcription coincides with that of neuropeptide accumulation in OL2-A neurons, but it precedes peptide accumulation in the OL3 neurons by days. Altering each of the five conserved sequences within the minimal 256-bp OL dFMRFa enhancer affected in vivo OL transcriptional activity in two cases: alteration of a TAAT element greatly diminished and alteration of a 9-bp tandem repeat completely abolished OL2-A/OL3 reporter activity. A 46-bp concatamer containing the TAAT element, tested separately, was not active in OL neurons. We propose a model of neuronal differentiation at metamorphosis that features developmental differences between classes of imaginal neurons.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, Missouri 63110, USA. taghertp@wustl.edu
authors.forename: P H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Taghert
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.forename: S C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Renn
authors.forename: P S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Jacobs
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified; D001483:Base Sequence; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000196:embryology / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development*; D004742:Enhancer Elements, Genetic; D019835:FMRFamide / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics*; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D017930:Genes, Reporter; D008675:Metamorphosis, Biological; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides; D014158:Transcription, Genetic; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000166:cytology / Q000196:embryology / Q000254:growth & development*; D001616:beta-Galactosidase / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides; D019835:FMRFamide; D001616:beta-Galactosidase