Abstract
Perhaps the most remarkable recent discovery in developmental biology is that the molecular mechanisms that pattern the animal embryo have been conserved throughout evolution. Many of the genes that specify embryonic pattern were first identified in the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster and later studied in vertebrates. In this chapter, I focus on the anterior region of the fly embryo, which includes the head and brain. I describe the morphological and molecular tools that have been used to identify and analyze the genes that specify the head and brain.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Finkelstein, R. and Perrimon, N. (1991) The molecular genetics of head development in Drosophila melanogaster. Development 112, 899–912.
Jurgens, G. and Hartenstein, V. (1993) The terminal regions of the body pattern, in The Development of Drosophila melanogaster, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, pp. 687–746.
Rogers, B. T. and Kaufman, T. C. (1996) Structure of the insect head as revealed by the EN protein pattern in developing embryos. Development 122, 3419–3432.
Jan, L. Y. and Jan, Y. N. (1982) Antibodies to horseradish peroxidase as specific neuronal markers in Drosophila and grasshopper embryos. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 79, 2700–2704.
Hirth, F., Therianos, S., Loop, T., Gehring, W. J., Reichert, H., and Furukubo-Tokunaga, K. (1995) Developmental defects in brain segmentation caused by mutations of the homeobox genes orthodenticle and empty spiracles in Drosophila. Neuron 15, 769–778.
O’Kane, C. and Gehring, W. (1987) Detection in situ of genomic regulatory elements in Drosophila. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 84, 9123–9127.
Green, P., Younossi-Hartenstein, A., and Hartenstein, V. (1993) Embryonic development of the Drosophila visual system. Cell Tissue Res. 273, 583–598.
Schmidt-Ott, U., Gonzalez-Gaitan, M., Jackle, H., and Technau, G. M. (1994) Number, identity, and sequence of the Drosophila head segments as revealed by neural elements and their deletion patterns in mutants. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 91, 8363–8367.
Fujita, S. C., Zipursky, S. L., Benzer, S., Ferrus, A., and Shotwell, S. L. (1982) Monoclonal antibodies against the Drosophila nervous system. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 79, 7929–7933.
Van Der Meer, J. (1977) Optical clean and permanent whole mount preparations for phase contrast microscopy of cuticular structures of insect larvae. Drosophila Inf. Serv. 52, 160.
Martinez Arias, A. (1993) Development and patterning of the larval epidermis of Drosophila, in The Development of Drosophila melanogaster, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, pp. 517–608.
Schmidt-Ott, U., Sander, K., and Technau, G. M. (1994) Expression of engrailed in embryos of a beetle and five dipteran species with special reference to the terminal regions. Roux’s Arch. Dev. Biol. 203, 298–303.
Finkelstein, R. and Perrimon, N. (1990) The orthodenticle gene is regulated by bicoid and torso and specifies Drosophila head development. Nature 346, 485–488.
Cohen, S. M. and Jurgens, G. (1990) Gap-like segmentation genes that mediate Drosophila head development. Nature 346, 482–485.
Cohen, S. M. and Jurgens, G. (1991) Drosophila headlines. Trends Genet. 7, 267–272.
Finkelstein, R. and Boncinelli, E. (1994) From fly head to mammalian forebrain: The story of otd and Otx. Trends Genet. 10, 310–315.
Rubenstein, J. L. R., Martinez, S., Shimamura, K., and Puelles, L. (1994) The embryonic vertebrate forebrain: The prosomeric model. Science 266, 578–580.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2000 Humana Press Inc., Totowa, NJ
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Finkelstein, R. (2000). Studying Head and Brain Development in Drosophila . In: Walker, J.M., Tuan, R.S., Lo, C.W. (eds) Developmental Biology Protocols. Methods in Molecular Biology™, vol 135. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-685-1:85
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-685-1:85
Publisher Name: Humana Press
Print ISBN: 978-0-89603-852-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-59259-685-0
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols