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New surveys of developing fly brain

Studies of CNS development in Drosophila have traditionally focused on the trunk CNS, about which a considerable amount is known, particularly regarding the role of the proneural genes in specifying neural stem cells called neuroblasts (NB). By comparison, relatively little is known about the CNS in the fly brain. This gap in knowledge has now been tackled by Gerhard Technau and co-workers, who have produced three papers in this issue (see p. 3589, p. 3607 and p. 3621) that provide new insights into the developing fly brain – its patterning and segmentation – and into the formation and specification of brain NBs. Their first paper details a comprehensive survey of early brain development, up to the stage when all brain NBs have formed. By using 4D microscopy, they have discovered various modes of NB formation that can be related to the presence of specific mitotic domains in the procephalic neuroectoderm (PN), from which the brain develops. They also describe here the expression of several proneural genes in the brain, and present evidence to show that the mechanisms that underlie NB formation differ between the head and trunk CNS. In their second study, the authors investigated the expression patterns of segment-polarity and dorsal-ventral patterning genes in the brain. Among their findings, they report that the expression of these genes allows the three main regions of the fly brain to be clearly demarcated and provide clues as to their evolution. Their final study focuses on the expression of other molecular markers in the developing brain – findings that should inform future studies of NB populations at different stages of early neurogenesis, as well as of mutant phenotypes and the mechanisms that lead to cell diversity in the developing brain.

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Related articles in Development:

The pattern of neuroblast formation, mitotic domains and proneural gene expression during early brain development in Drosophila

Rolf Urbach, Ralf Schnabel, and Gerhard M. Technau
Development 2003 130: 3589-3606. [Abstract] [Full Text]  

Segment polarity and DV patterning gene expression reveals segmental organization of the Drosophila brain

Rolf Urbach and Gerhard M. Technau
Development 2003 130: 3607-3620. [Abstract] [Full Text]  

Molecular markers for identified neuroblasts in the developing brain of Drosophila

Rolf Urbach and Gerhard M. Technau
Development 2003 130: 3621-3637. [Abstract] [Full Text]  

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