Journal of Neuroscience, Vol 7, 4165-4175, Copyright © 1987 by Society for Neuroscience
The guidance of axons from transplanted neurons through aneural Drosophila wings
SS Blair, MA Murray and J Palka
Department of Zoology, University of Washington, Seattle 98195.
The sensory neurons of the wing of Drosophila arise during the first 24 hr
of metamorphosis, and their axons converge to form a stereotyped set of
nerves projecting proximally from the peripherally located cell bodies
through the wing and towards the CNS. To better characterize the cues
guiding this stereotyped axon outgrowth, we have performed a series of
transplantation studies in which neurons from a variety of sources (wing,
eye, antenna, and leg disks) were placed into mutant, aneural wings. Axons
growing from such implants in effect assay the host wing for the presence
and location of guidance cues. Our results show, first, that such axons
prefer to grow in the normal, proximal direction and, second, that they
prefer to grow along the approximate site of one of the normal nerves, that
of the third longitudinal vein. It therefore appears that the aneural wing
epithelium contains cues capable of directing both the polarity and the
location of axonal outgrowth. These cues are relatively non-specific, in
that a variety of neuronal types are capable of responding to them.
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