Mutant embryos have defects in salivary gland shape and position that appear to result from abnormal migration. Defects include secretory tubes oriented on the dorsoventral axis, relatively straight tubes with only the distal tips misoriented and tubes with multiple kinks along their length. The defects in the salivary glands are first seen at stage 12, when salivary cells are seen in positions dorsal to the wild-type turning point (the point where the cells turn to reorient their movement posteriorly in wild-type embryos), suggesting a failure to turn posteriorly in the mutant embryos. The visceral mesoderm is disrupted in mutant embryos, with variably sized fragments of visceral mesoderm at the normal position of the visceral mesoderm. In mutant stage 12 embryos where no visceral mesoderm (VM) is present at the salivary cell turning point, the distal tip of the salivary gland is seen dorsal to the level of the remaining VM fragments, indicating that the salivary cells have continued to migrate dorsally, instead of turning posteriorly at the turning point. In embryos where a small VM fragment is present at the turning point, posterior migration of the salivary gland varies. In embryos where VM is present at the turning point, salivary gland cells initiate posterior migration as in wild type. Salivary gland shape and position is abnormal in htl^AB42/htl^EMS2 embryos.