Bicaudal Mutations of Drosophila melanogaster: Alteration of Blastoderm Cell Fate

作者：J. Dawson Mohler, Eric F. Wieschaus · 发表于：Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology · 年份：1985 · DOI：10.1101/sqb.1985.050.01.015 · 被引用次数：32 · 研究领域：Developmental Biology and Gene Regulation、Insect Resistance and Genetics、Genetic and Clinical Aspects of Sex Determination and Chromosomal Abnormalities

One of the most intriguing questions of developmental biology is how the organization of the developing embryo is regulated. In Drosophila melanogaster, a number of mutations have been isolated that disrupt the organization of the early embryo. Some of these mutations are expressed after fertilization in the developing zygote and have only a limited effect on the overall organization of the developing embryo (see, e.g., Nüsslein-Volhard and Wieschaus 1980). Given the limited transcription in Drosophila during cleavage and nuclear migration, the global organization of the developing embryo, defined during the cellular blastoderm stage, is more likely to be under maternal control during oogenesis. The maternal-effect mutations that appear to have the greatest effect on the global organization of the embryo are those that affect one of the two major axes of the embryo: the anterior-posterior axis or the dorsal-ventral axis. Mutations, such as dorsal (dl), cause the loss of the...