Vestigial expression in the Drosophila embryonic central nervous system

Abstract

The Drosophila central nervous system is an excellent model system in which to resolve the genetic and molecular control of neuronal differentiation. Here we show that the wing selector vestigial is expressed in discrete sets of neurons. We track the axonal trajectories of VESTIGIAL-expressing cells in the ventral nerve cord and show that these cells descend from neuroblasts 1-2, 5-1, and 5-6. In addition, along the midline, VESTIGIAL is expressed in ventral unpaired median motorneurons and cells that may descend from the median neuroblast. These studies form the requisite descriptive foundation for functional studies addressing the role of vestigial during interneuron differentiation.