Spatial organization of microtubules and microfilaments in larval and adult salivary glands of Drosophila melanogaster

1993 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 751-762 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Giovanna Riparbelli ◽  
Giuliano Callaini ◽  
Dallai Romano
1972 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 689-697
Author(s):  
H. M. KRIDER ◽  
W. PLAUT

The influence of conditions resulting in bobbed phenotypes on nucleolar RNA synthesis and the formation of constrictions at nucleolus organizers was examined in larval tissues of Drosophila melanogaster. By means of [3H]uridine incorporation and autoradiographic analysis, a mutation at the bobbed locus was shown to limit the rate of nucleolar RNA synthesis in salivary glands of XO larvae. The formation of constrictions at the organizer sites of a 4-nucleolus-organizer stock was monitored in dividing neuroblast cells stained with acridine orange. Loss of the ribosomal cistrons had been reported by other workers when such stocks were maintained for several generations. In the first generation in our work, constrictions were visible at only 2 of the 4 nucleolus organizers. This situation persisted until the fifth generation, when constrictions appeared at all 4 of the organizer sites. An increase in the rate of nucleolar RNA synthesis in the salivary glands was temporally correlated with the appearance of the extra constrictions. We interpret these observations to mean that 2 of the organizers of the 4-nucleolus-organizer stock were caused to function through the loss of ribosomal RNA cistrons; thus the functional status of an organizer would appear to be subject to control.


Development ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 118 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.V. Orenic ◽  
L.I. Held ◽  
S.W. Paddock ◽  
S.B. Carroll

The spatial organization of Drosophila melanogaster epidermal structures in embryos and adults constitutes a classic model system for understanding how the two dimensional arrangement of particular cell types is generated. For example, the legs of the Drosophila melanogaster adult are covered with bristles, which in most segments are arranged in longitudinal rows. Here we elucidate the key roles of two regulatory genes, hairy and achaete, in setting up this periodic bristle pattern. We show that achaete is expressed during pupal leg development in a dynamic pattern which changes, by approximately 6 hours after puparium formation, into narrow longitudinal stripes of 3–4 cells in width, each of which represents a field of cells (proneural field) from which bristle precursor cells are selected. This pattern of gene expression foreshadows the adult bristle pattern and is established in part through the function of the hairy gene, which also functions in patterning other adult sense organs. In pupal legs, hairy is expressed in four longitudinal stripes, located between every other pair of achaete stripes. We show that in the absence of hairy function achaete expression expands into the interstripe regions that normally express hairy, fusing the two achaete stripes and resulting in extra-wide stripes of achaete expression. This misexpression of achaete, in turn, alters the fields of potential bristle precursor cells which leads to the misalignment of bristle rows in the adult. This function of hairy in patterning achaete expression is distinct from that in the wing in which hairy suppresses late expression of achaete but has no effect on the initial patterning of achaete expression. Thus, the leg bristle pattern is apparently regulated at two levels: a global regulation of the hairy and achaete expression patterns which partitions the leg epidermis into striped zones (this study) and a local regulation (inferred from other studies on the selection of neural precursor cells) that involves refinement steps which may control the alignment and spacing of bristle cells within these zones.


1993 ◽  
Vol 274 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan W�nsch ◽  
Stefan Schneider ◽  
Albrecht Schwab ◽  
Hans Oberleithner

1978 ◽  
Vol 26 (8) ◽  
pp. 677-679 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Hayashi ◽  
I C Gillam ◽  
A D Delaney ◽  
G M Tener

DNA in prepared chromosomes from the larval salivary glands of Drosophila melanogaster was hybridized with [125I]-labeled 5S and tRNA from the same organism. Autoradiography revealed that radioactivity was frequently bound to all regions of the slides, masking labeling of the chromosomes. Acetylation of the preparations before hybridization prevented the formation of this background and revealed the specific chromosomal sites.


1969 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. C. Lakhotia ◽  
A. S. Mukherjee

Morphology and the rate of RNA synthesis of the X-chromosome in XX/XO mosaic larval salivary glands of Drosophila melanogaster have been examined. For this purpose the unstable ring-X was utilized to produce XX and XO nuclei in the same pair of glands. The width of the X-chromosome and the left arm of the 3rd chromosome (3L) of larval salivary glands was measured and the rate of RNA synthesis by them was studied upon the use of [3H]uridine autoradiography in such XX (female) and XO (male) nuclei developing in a female background (i.e. otherwise genotypically XX). In such mosaic glands the width of the single X-chromosome of male nuclei is nearly as great as that of the paired two X's of female nuclei, as is also the case in normal male (X Y) and female (XX). The single X of male nuclei synthesizes RNA at a rate equal to that of the paired two X's of female nuclei and nearly twice that of an unpaired X of XX nuclei. Neither the developmental physiology of the sex nor the proportion of XO nuclei in a pair of mosaic salivary glands of an XX larva has any influence on these two characteristics of the male X-chromosome.It is suggested that dosage compensation in Drosophila is achieved chiefly, if not fully, by a hyperactivity of the male X, in contrast to the single X inactivation in female mammals, that this hyperactivity of the male X is expressed visibly in the morphology and metabolic activity of the X-chromosome in the larval salivary glands of the male, and that this hyperactivity and therefore dosage compensation in Drosophila in general is not dependent on sex-differentiation, but is a function of the doses of the X-chromosome itself.


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