Int. J. Dev. Biol. 48: 913 - 924 (2004)

https://doi.org/10.1387/ijdb.041875kp

Vol 48, Issue 8-9

Special Issue: Eye Development

Genetic control of retinal specification and determination in Drosophila

Published: 1 November 2004

Kartik S. Pappu¹ and Graeme Mardon*^,1,2,3,4,5

¹Program in Developmental Biology, ²Department of Pathology, ³Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, ⁴Department of Ophthalmology and ⁵Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX, USA

Abstract

The Drosophila compound eye has long served as an outstanding model system to study many processes, including cell fate specification, cell division, cell growth and cell death. In addition, exploring the molecular basis of eye specification in Drosophila has identified a set of nuclear factors that trigger the conversion of a group of multipotent epithelial cells into eye primordia. These nuclear factors act in complex networks to regulate retinal specification and appear to be conserved throughout phylogeny. Finally, evidence suggests that these nuclear networks have been co-opted to specify cell fates in other tissues. We review the latest developments in the field of retinal specification in Drosophila and discuss several future directions that remain open for investigation.

Keywords

Drosophila, retina, specification, determination, selector