Summary
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1.
InDrosophila melanogaster the genotype Theta causes the development of an interalar bristle-organ which is not formed in the wild type. The genotype Minute-n causes, in Theta flies, a strong reduction in the frequency of the occurrence of the interalar bristle.
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2.
By means of genetic mosaics, produced by somatic crossing over and segregation, a developmental analysis was applied to the differences in interalar differentiation between the wild-type, the Theta and the Minute-n genotype.
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3.
Loss of Minute-n in segregated tissues of Minute-n Theta flies leads to differentiation of the interalar bristle. Loss of Minute-n and Theta in segregates of such flies may also lead to differentiation of the bristle, particularly in spots of small area.
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4.
In the neighborhood of the border between the genetically different tissues of mosaics extra bristles may be formed.
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5.
The data furnish evidence for interactions between the genetically different tissues of mosaics: inhibition of bristle formation in the surroundings of differentiating bristles, and spread of gene-dependent substances concerned with differentiation.
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6.
The results can be interpreted in terms of a constant prepattern for the interalar bristle in wild-type, Theta and Minute Theta genotypes, but of different competence of cells with the three genotypes to respond to the prepattern by differentiation of the interalar bristle.
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Dedicated toKarl Henke on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday.
The basic data were collected a considerable time ago but have only now become intelligible. I wish to acknowledge earlier helpful, critical comments by Dr. A. H.Sturtevant on an unpublished manuscript dealing with these experiments and of Dr.Aloha Hannah-Alava on the present report. The analysis was completed during tenure of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship while I enjoyed the hospitality of Professor C. W.Waddington at the Institute of Animal Genetics, Edinburgh, and of Professor A.Kühn at the Max-Planck-Institut für Biologie, Tübingen.
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Stern, C. The genetic control of developmental competence and morphogenetic tissue interactions in genetic mosaics. W. Roux' Archiv f. Entwicklungsmechanik 149, 1–25 (1956). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01382504
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01382504