848A Poster - 13. Neural development and physiology
Thursday April 07, 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Authors:
Maria Alejandra Pizarro Salazar; Afshan Ismat

Affiliation: University of St. Thomas

Keywords:
n. PNS; j. other signaling pathways

Slit is a secreted ligand expressed in the ectoderm and plays an important role during neurogenesis. In the peripheral nervous system (PNS), removing slit results in defects in the morphology and the migration of the lch5 chordotonal neurons. In order to gain a deeper understanding of how slit functions in this developmental process, we have over-expressed slit in the neurons, glial cells, or ectoderm of Drosophila embryos, and examined PNS neurons in each situation. Preliminary results show that over-expression of slit in these tissues results in a range of defects in comparison to wild type embryos. Over-expression of slit in glial cells results in the loss of certain dorsal neurons. The over-expression of slit in neurons shows that the cluster tails from the dorsal section are shorter than those found in wild type embryos. Additionally, over-expression of slit in the ectoderm results in defects including an axonal branch from one section that connects to another and shows a neuron that is completely out of place. The out-of-place neuron appears mostly close to the dorsal tail of sections A2-A3 with the direction of the axon going towards the ectoderm. These results suggest that Slit could be working as an attractant instead of a repellent for the neurons of the PNS. Currently, we are in the process of testing this hypothesis further. Clearly, this data demonstrates the importance of slit in PNS development, and we hope to provide insight into the mechanism of slit function in the PNS.