Wing It

As a three-day-old fruit fly larva starts its transformation into an adult, important changes are going on beneath its skin. This raindrop-shaped structure is the nascent wing, forming from a tiny pocket of cells (stained blue) as they grow in a carefully coordinated fashion. Cells containing a chemical messenger called dpp have been labelled with green fluorescent protein. Dpp helps to control how the wing takes shape, accumulating in a narrow band down the middle to divide its anterior [front] and posterior [back] ends. And it tells nearby cells to ‘switch on’ genes (stained red), which control the development of different parts of the wing. Scientists recently discovered that another protein – called pent – makes sure different parts of the wing grow in proportion with one another.

Written by Emma Stoye

Emma Stoye

Writer

Cambridge-based Emma works for Research SEA and Asia Research News. She has a degree in biological sciences from Oxford University, and has written, edited and produced material for the Naked Scientists radio show.

• Fisun Hamaratoglu
• University of Basel, Switzerland
• Originally published under Creative Commons (CC-BY 2.0)
• Published in PLoS Biology