Formation and specification of ventral neuroblasts is controlled by vnd in Drosophila neurogenesis (original) (raw)

  1. Hsin Chu1,4,
  2. Carlos Parras2,4,
  3. Kalpana White3, and
  4. Fernando Jiménez2,5
  5. 1Biochemistry Department, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts 02454-9110 USA; 2Centro Biología Molecular ‘Severo Ochoa,’ CSIC-Universidad Autónoma Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain; 3Biology Department and Volen Center, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts 02454-9110 USA

Abstract

During Drosophila neural development, neuroblasts delaminate from the neuroectoderm of each hemisegment in a stereotypic orthogonal array of five rows and three columns (ventral, intermediate, and dorsal). Prevailing evidence indicates that the individual neuroblast fate is determined by the domain-specific expression of genes along the dorsoventral and anteroposterior axis. Here, we analyze the role of Vnd, a NK-2 homeodomain protein, expressed initially in the ventral neuroectoderm adjacent to the ventral midline, in the dorsoventral patterning of the neuroectoderm and the neuroblasts. We show that in_vnd_ null mutants most ventral neuroblasts do not form and the few that form do not develop ventral fates, but instead develop intermediate-like fates. Furthermore, we demonstrate that Vnd influences the gene expression patterns in the ventral proneural clusters and neuroectoderm, and that its action in neuroblast formation includes, but is not exclusive to the activation of proneural_AS-C_ genes. Through the use of GAL4/UAS gene-expression system we show that ectopic Vnd expression can promote ventral-like fates in intermediate and dorsal neuroblasts and can suppress certain normal characteristics of the intermediate and dorsal neuroectoderm. Our results are discussed in the context of the current evidence in dorsoventral patterning in the _Drosophila_neuroectoderm.

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