Echinus, required for interommatidial cell sorting and cell death in the Drosophila pupal retina, encodes a protein with homology to ubiquitin-specific proteases.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Programmed cell death is used to remove excess cells between ommatidia in the Drosophila pupal retina. This death is required to establish the crystalline, hexagonal packing of ommatidia that characterizes the adult fly eye. In previously described echinus mutants, interommatidial cell sorting, which precedes cell death, occurred relatively normally. Interommatidial cell death was partially suppressed, resulting in adult eyes that contained excess pigment cells, and in which ommatidia were mildly disordered. These results have suggested that echinus functions in the pupal retina primarily to promote interommatidial cell death.

Results

We generated a number of new echinus alleles, some likely null mutants. Analysis of these alleles provides evidence that echinus ha

SUBMITTER: Copeland JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1950886 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature