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The fine structure of developing bristles in wild type and mutant Drosophila melanogaster
Author(s) -
Overton Jane
Publication year - 1967
Publication title -
journal of morphology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.652
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1097-4687
pISSN - 0362-2525
DOI - 10.1002/jmor.1051220406
Subject(s) - bristle , drosophila melanogaster , biology , bundle , mutant , cytoplasm , anatomy , morphogenesis , genetics , gene , brush , materials science , composite material
In an attempt to understand the factors involved in morphogenesis of a complex cell like a scale or bristle, the fine structure of the normal development of bristle cells in Drosophila melanogaster (Oregon R) has been studied and compared with that of the mutants sn 3 and Sb. In the development of the normal bristle rounded bundles of longitudinally oriented fibrils lie just beneath the cell surface at regularly spaced intervals. Fiber bundles constitute about 20% of the cross sectional area. The cytoplasmic surface between these bundles is active in enveloping the nerve fiber associated with the bristle and in sending out cytoplasmic processes associated with which the longitudinally oriented bristle ridges form. Singed bristles are bent and twisted and the fiber bundles are present as flattened bands constituting only about 5% of the cross‐sectional area. In Sb mutants the total cross‐sectional area of fiber bundle material is the same as that in Oregon R, but fiber bundles are smaller and more numerous, being distributed over the larger surface of this thicker and shorter bristle. They constitute only 7% of the cross‐sectional area of the bristle. In Sn 3 Sb mutants characteristics of each gene are exaggerated and an extremely short, wide, and irregular bristle is formed.