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My what big eyes you have: How the Drosophila retina grows
Author(s) -
Kumar Justin P.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
developmental neurobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.716
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1932-846X
pISSN - 1932-8451
DOI - 10.1002/dneu.20921
Subject(s) - biology , drosophila melanogaster , microbiology and biotechnology , retina , cell fate determination , mitosis , neuroscience , cell division , drosophila (subgenus) , ommatidium , imaginal disc , anatomy , compound eye , cell , genetics , gene , physics , transcription factor , optics
The compound eye of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster , has for decades been used extensively to study a number of critical developmental processes including tissue development, pattern formation, cell fate specification, and planar cell polarity. To a lesser degree it has been used to examine the cell cycle and tissue proliferation. Discovering the mechanisms that balance tissue growth and cell death in developing epithelia has traditionally been the realm of those using the wing disc. However, over the last decade a series of observations has demonstrated that the eye is a suitable and maybe even preferable tissue for studying tissue growth. This review will focus on how growth of the retina is controlled by the genes and pathways that govern the specification of tissue fate, the division of the epithelium into dorsal‐ventral compartments, the initiation, and progression of the morphogenetic furrow and the second mitotic wave. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol 71: 1133–1152, 2011