Microscopic analysis of the adult Drosophila retina using semithin plastic sections.
The regular appearance and the repetitive nature of the Drosophila eye, consisting of several hundred identical multicellular units, the ommatidia, has long served as an invaluable experimental system to study cell-cell interactions, inductive signaling events, cell proliferation, programmed cell death, cell differentiation, cell organization, and planar cell polarity among others. Importantly, the eye is dispensable for viability and fertility of the fly and thus, it can easily be manipulated, making it an ideal target for genetic screens. This chapter described an essential technique in the analysis of different genotypes in the adult fly eye, and allows detailed analyses with single cell resolution.
Gaengel
Konstantin
K
Department of Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
Mlodzik
Marek
M
D000818:Animals; D019521:Body Patterning; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D016764:Cell Polarity; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002470:Cell Survival; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000196:embryology*; D005821:Genetic Techniques; D005838:Genotype; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008853:Microscopy / Q000379:methods; D017956:Photoreceptor Cells, Invertebrate / Q000196:embryology*; D012160:Retina / Q000196:embryology*; D015398:Signal Transduction
D029721:Drosophila Proteins