Hb. Nelson et A. Laughon, DROSOPHILA GLIAL ARCHITECTURE AND DEVELOPMENT - ANALYSIS USING A COLLECTION OF NEW CELL-SPECIFIC MARKERS, Roux's archives of developmental biology, 202(6), 1993, pp. 341-354
Monoclonal antibodies and enhancer trap insertions that mark subsets o
f neurons have been valuable tools in the study of Drosophila neuronal
development. Similarly, glial specific cell markers could prove to be
valuable in investigating the development and function,of glia. Here
we characterize the architecture and development of distinct sets of D
rosophila embryonic glia, using a reporter gene driven by fushi tarazu
homeodomain binding sites. Reporter expresssion in glia is dependent
on the orientation and spacing of the homeodomain binding sites, revea
ling potential differences in glial determination. These studies sugge
st that the use of transcription factor binding sites to drive reporte
r gene expression may prove to be a generally useful means of generati
ng additional cell type-specific markers.