A wingless -Dependent Polar Coordinate System in Drosophila Imaginal Discs

作者：Juan Pablo Couso, Michael Bate, Alfonso Martínez-Arias · 发表于：Science · 年份：1993 · DOI：10.1126/science.8424170 · 被引用次数：275 · 研究领域：Developmental Biology and Gene Regulation、Wnt/β-catenin signaling in development and cancer、Silk-based biomaterials and applications

The patterning of the imaginal discs in Drosophila melanogaster is a progressive process that, like the patterning of the larval epidermis during embryogenesis, requires the activity of segment polarity genes. One segment polarity gene, wingless, encodes a homolog of the mouse proto-oncogene Wnt-1 and plays a prominent role in the patterning of the larval epidermis and the imaginal discs. However, whereas the function of wingless in the embryo is initially associated with a pattern of stripes along the anteroposterior axis that are part of a Cartesian coordinate system, it is shown here that during imaginal development wingless is associated with a pattern of sectors that provide references for a polar coordinate system homologous to that postulated in a well-known model for the regeneration of insect and vertebrate limbs.