Fig. 2. Planar polarity and fz phenotypes in the Drosophila wing and eye. (A) During pupal life in the wild-type wing (top), hairs form at the distal vertex on the apical surface of each cell and point distally. In the absence of frizzled (fz) activity (bottom), hairs form in the centre of cells and ultimately adopting swirling patterns in the adult wing. (B) A clone of cells in the wing lacking fz activity (pink) shows both autonomous and non-autonomous polarity phenotypes. Cells in the clone form hairs in the centre of the cell. Cells around it form hairs that point towards the clone. (C) In the eye, ommatidia are gradually assembled by the recruitment of eight photoreceptor cells (R1-R8), and become polarised. fz activity is required in the R3/R4 cell pair (light green) for a correct chirality decision to occur, such that one cell takes on the R3 fate (dark green) and the ommatidium rotates 90° clockwise in the dorsal half of the eye or anticlockwise in the ventral half. Absence of fz activity leads to a randomised choice (or no choice) of R3 fate and a randomised degree of rotation that is either greater or less than 90°.

Return to article