Shaggy (zeste-white 3) and the formation of supernumerary bristle precursors in the developing wing blade of Drosophila

Abstract

The development of supernumerary bristle precursors induced by the mutation shaggy (sgg; also known as zeste-white 3) was examined in the developing wing blade of imaginal and pupal Drosophila. sgg clones were induced by mitotic recombination; clones were marked using enhancer-trap flies which express β-galactosidase ubiquitously in imaginal tissues, while bristle precursors were identified using sensillum and bristle-specific enhancer-trap lines. It was shown that the precursors of supernumerary sgg bristles in the wing blade mimicked the development of morphologically similar margin bristles, developing in a manner similar to that of anterior sensory bristles in anterior clones and posterior noninnervated bristles in posterior clones. Interestingly, supernumerary anterior sensory bristles appeared outside the normal regions of “proneural” gene activity as identified using anti- achaete. Moreover, sgg could induce the ectopic expression of achaete in anterior clones. Thus, in the anterior wing blade the sgg mutation leads to the formation of ectopic proneural regions.