Reference Report

Reference
Citation	Wernet, M.F., Labhart, T., Baumann, F., Mazzoni, E.O., Pichaud, F., Desplan, C. (2003). Homothorax switches function of Drosophila photoreceptors from color to polarized light sensors. Cell 115(3): 267--279. (Export to RIS)
FlyBase ID	FBrf0167367
Publication Type	Research paper
PubMed ID	14636555
PubMed Abstract	Different classes of photoreceptors (PRs) allow animals to perceive various types of visual information. In the Drosophila eye, the outer PRs of each ommatidium are involved in motion detection while the inner PRs mediate color vision. In addition, flies use a specialized class of inner PRs in the "dorsal rim area" of the eye (DRA) to detect the e-vector of polarized light, allowing them to exploit skylight polarization for orientation. We show that homothorax is both necessary and sufficient for inner PRs to adopt the polarization-sensitive DRA fate instead of the color-sensitive default state. Homothorax increases rhabdomere size and uncouples R7-R8 communication to allow both cells to express the same opsin rather than different ones as required for color vision. Homothorax expression is induced by the iroquois complex and the wingless (wg) pathway. However, crucial wg pathway components are not required, suggesting that additional signals are involved.
DOI
Related Publication(s)
Review	Looking up: regional patterning in the fly eye. D'Costa and Moses, 2003, Dev. Cell 5(5): 665--666 [FBrf0167475]
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Secondary IDs
Language of Publication	English
Additional Languages of Abstract
Also Published As
Parent Publication
Publication Type	Journal
Abbreviation	Cell
Title	Cell
Publication Year	1974-
ISBN/ISSN	0092-8674
Data from Reference
Aberrations (1)
	Df(3L)iro-DFM3
Alleles (30)
	ara^Scer\UAS.cGa arm^{S10.Scer\UAS.T:Hsap\MYC} Avic\GFP^E.ninaE Avic\GFP^{E.Scer\UAS.cMa} caup^{Scer\UAS.cdCa} dsh³ Ecol\lacZ^ara-rF209 Ecol\lacZ^arm.PV Ecol\lacZ^hth-06762 Ecol\lacZ^Rh3.343P Ecol\lacZ^Scer\UAS.cUa Ecol\lacZ^svp-07842 fz2^C1 fz¹⁵ hth^B2 hth^GAL4 hth^{HM.Scer\UAS.T:Avic\GFP} hth^{Scer\UAS.T:Avic\GFP} hth^{Scer\UAS.T:Hsap\MYC} mirr^Scer\UAS.cMa pan^ΔN.Scer\UAS Ras85D^V12.sev Rh3^{T:Avic\GFP-EGFP} ro^x63 Scer\GAL4^GMR.long Scer\GAL4^GMR.PF Scer\GAL4^hth-GAL4 sev^unspecified svp¹ T:Avic\GFP^EGFP
Constructs (17)
	P{arm-lacZ.V} P{GAL4-ninaE.GMR} P{longGMR-GAL4} P{ninaE-EGFP.P} P{Rh3.343,lacZ} P{Rh3-Rh3-EGFP.P} P{sevRas1.V12} P{UAS-ara.G} P{UAS-arm.S10} P{UAS-caup.dC} P{UAS-EGFP.M} P{UAS-GFP-hth.HM} P{UAS-GFP-hth} P{UAS-lacZ.U} P{UAS-mirr.M} P{UAS-MYC-HTH} P{UAS-pan.dTCFΔN}
Genes (28)
	ara arm Avic\GFP caup chp dsh Ecol\lacZ elav fz fz2 GMR hth mirr pan pros Ras85D Rh3 Rh4 Rh5 Rh6 ro salm Scer\GAL4 sens sev svp T:Avic\GFP T:Hsap\MYC
Insertions (4)
	P{GawB}hth^GAL4 P{PZ}ara^rF209 P{PZ}hth⁰⁶⁷⁶² P{PZ}svp⁰⁷⁸⁴²
Transcripts (6)
	Ecol\lacZ^ara-rF209RA Ecol\lacZ^hth-06762RA Ecol\lacZ^Rh3.343PRA Ecol\lacZ^svp-07842RA Scer\GAL4^hth-GAL4RA Scer\GAL4^Tm1-C817RA