DEVELOPMENT OF THE INSECT STOMATOGASTRIC NERVOUS-SYSTEM

The stomatogastric nervous system (SNS) forms a network of peripheral ganglia associated with the insect gut. The SNS originates from a neur oepithelial placode which dissolves into a population of migrating neu ral precursors. The formation of the SNS presents many parallels to th e development of the vertebrate peripheral nervous system. Recent stud ies have started to provide answers for pertinent questions in SNS dev elopment,in particular, how the SNS placode is specified, how SNS prec ursors are released in a reproducible pattern from this placode and ho w different cell types in the SNS are determined.