Epidermal growth factor dependent regulation of drosophila nervous system development along the dorso-ventral axis

Abstract

The Drosophila embryonic nervous system develops from an array of neural precursor cells called, neuroblasts. These neuroblasts give rise to all the cell types that populate the mature central nervous system (CNS). The CNS originates from a bilateraly symmetric neurectoderm that is subdivided into three domains along the dorso-ventral (DV) axis. One of these domains is defined by the expression of the Homeodomain protein ventral nervous system defective (vnd). Regulation of neuroblast designation is very precise and controlled. Extensive research has been done on neuroblast formation along the anteroposterior axis, most of which indicates that neuroblast selection within a cluster of neurectodermal cells is controlled by segmentation genes. However, much more research is required to elucidate the function of genes along the DV axis. Early studies indicate that vnd is required for neuroblast formation in the ventral column. Here, we show that vnd function, but not expression, is dependent on MAPK activity downstream of Drosophila EGF-R (DER). Specifically, we show that vnd activity is eliminated in EGF-R mutant embryos in a stage specific manner by evaluating vnd’s ability to inhibit intermediate neuroblast defective (ind), muscle segment homeobox (msh), and the newly identified neural tube development player, neu3. Finally, we show that DER functionality in the ventral column is entirely dependent on the processing protein rhomboid (rho) in later stage embryos.