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RESEARCH COMMUNICATION

Conversion of neurons and glia to external-cell fates in the external sensory organs of Drosophila hamlet mutants by a cousin-cousin cell-type respecification

Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Departments of Physiology and Biochemistry, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94143, USA

The Drosophila external sensory organ forms in a lineage elaborating from a single precursor cell via a stereotypical series of asymmetric divisions. HAMLET transcription factor expression demarcates the lineage branch that generates two internal cell types, the external sensory neuron and thecogen. In HAMLET mutant organs, these internal cells are converted to external cells via an unprecedented cousin-cousin cell-fate respecification event. Conversely, ectopic HAMLET expression in the external cell branch leads to internal cell production. The fate-determining signals NOTCH and PAX2 act at multiple stages of lineage elaboration and HAMLET acts to modulate their activity in a branch-specific manner.

[Keywords: Cell fate; respecification; cell lineage; Drosophila; external sensory organ; hamlet]

Received November 20, 2003; revised version accepted February 24, 2004.

¹ Present address: Molecular Neuropathology Group, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako, Saitama 351-198, Japan

² Corresponding author.
E-MAIL ynjan{at}itsa.ucsf.edu; FAX (415) 476-5774.

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