Mutations affecting segment number and polarity in Drosophila

In systematic searches for embryonic lethal mutants of Drosophila melanogaster we have identified 15 loci which when mutated alter the segmental pattern of the larva. These loci probably represent the majority of such genes in Drosophila. The phenotypes of the mutant embryos indicate that the process of segmentation involves at least three levels of spatial organization: the entire egg as developmental unit, a repeat unit with the length of two segments, and the individual segment.

[1]  D. Lindsley,et al.  Genetic variations of Drosophila melanogaster , 1967 .

[2]  C. H. Waddington,et al.  Developmental systems : insects , 1972 .

[3]  H. Meinhardt,et al.  Applications of a theory of biological pattern formation based on lateral inhibition. , 1974, Journal of cell science.

[4]  K. Sander.  Specification of the Basic Body Pattern in Insect Embryogenesis1 , 1976 .

[5]  V. Chopra,et al.  Effect of the Wingless (wg1) mutation on wing and haltere development in Drosophila melanogaster. , 1976, Developmental biology.

[6]  E. Wieschaus,et al.  Clonal analysis of primordial disc cells in the early embryo of Drosophila melanogaster. , 1976, Developmental biology.

[7]  P. Lawrence,et al.  Compartments in the wing of Drosophila: a study of the engrailed gene. , 1976, Developmental biology.

[8]  A. Garcı́a-Bellido.  Homoeotic and atavic mutations in insects , 1977 .

[9]  E. Lewis.  A gene complex controlling segmentation in Drosophila , 1978, Nature.

[10]  S A Kauffman,et al.  Control of sequential compartment formation in Drosophila. , 1978, Science.

[11]  C Cremer,et al.  A fate map for the larval epidermis of Drosophila melanogaster: localized cuticle defects following irradiation of the blastoderm with an ultraviolet laser microbeam. , 1979, Developmental biology.

[12]  C. Nusslein-Volhard.  Maternal Effect Mutations that Alter the Spatial Coordinates of the Embryo of Drosophila melanogaste , 1979 .

[13]  E. Wieschaus,et al.  Cell lineage and development in the larval epidermis of Drosophila melanogaster. , 1979, Developmental biology.

[14]  J. G. Sutcliffe,et al.  Chemical synthesis of a polypeptide predicted from nucleotide sequence allows detection of a new retroviral gene product , 1980, Nature.