Senseless is required for pupal retinal development in Drosophila.
Drosophila sensory organs are specified by a family of proneural genes which induce the expression of several common targets. One such target is senseless, which encodes a zinc finger transcription factor. We analyzed the function of senseless during pupal retinal development and found that senseless is required for recruitment of both cone and pigment cells, the pupal-derived ommatidial support cells. We also found that Senseless is expressed in neural precursors shortly after the larval-pupal transition and is both necessary and sufficient for interommatidial bristle development. Furthermore, senseless is the primary target of achaete and scute during interommatidial bristle development. We also identified several differences between the development of interommatidial bristles and other macrochaete. In particular, EGFR signaling is not required for interommatidial bristle development, nor is positive feedback regulation of proneural genes by senseless. A model for interommatidial bristle specification is presented.
Frankfort
Benjamin J
BJ
Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.
Pepple
Kathryn L
KL
Mamlouk
Mark
M
Rose
Matthew F
MF
Mardon
Graeme
G
D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D019070:Cell Lineage; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000166:cytology / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism*; D066246:ErbB Receptors / Q000378:metabolism; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics; D009457:Neuroglia / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D011679:Pupa / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism; D012160:Retina / Q000166:cytology / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism*; D015398:Signal Transduction; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors; C413162:sens protein, Drosophila; D066246:ErbB Receptors