SPERMATOGENESIS IN DROSOPHILA

A short summary on the present knowledge on spermatogenesis in Drosoph ila is given which also points out particular questions of interest in the context of this morphogenetic process. Such points of interest ar e the formation of lampbrush loops in primary spermatocytes, the chrom osomal events during meiosis, the occurrence of chromatin rearrangemen ts and the regulation of gene activities at the posttranscriptional le vel. The activities and some major conclusions from my laboratory are subsequently described. They include studies of the expression of hist one variants, the structure and function of lampbrush loops and the ex pression of genes participating in sperm morphogenesis.