Tissue distribution of malic enzyme nadp ec 1.1.1.40 in drosophila melanogaster imaginal discs
Finkbohner, J.D.; Cunningham, G.N.; Kuhn, D.T.
Wilhelm Roux's Archives of Developmental Biology 194(4): 217-223
1985
ISSN/ISBN: 0340-0794 Accession: 006810090
The spatial distribution patterns of malic enzyme-NADP+ (ME) in D. melanogaster imaginal discs and other structures were demonstrated histochemically. Staining in the imaginal discs was limited to specific areas where intense reactions occurred primarily in differentiating structures. The eye-antennal disc possessed the most distinctive staining pattern. The ommatidial preclusters and clusters of the eye portion both stained, with heavier deposition in mature clusters. Staining in the preclusters closest to the morphogenetic furrow (MF) was obscured by a band of stained cells on either side of the MF that extends dorsoventrally across the disc. The ME low activity mutant MenNCI showed a dramatic reduction in staining of this band of cells but had no visible effect on eye morphogenesis. The larval optic nerve which traverses the entire length of the eye-antennal disc was a consistently stained feature. Two structures specifically stained in the leg discs. The most prominent was the chordotonal organ; the 2nd was a larval nerve extending the length of the disc. Limited staining was observed in the wing disc. No ME staining could be detected in the labial disc or haltere disc. Even though the genital discs did not stain for ME, the enzyme was induced sometime during the pupal stage since intense staining was noted in several adult internal genital disc derived structures. ME staining in imaginal discs was associated with structures from the nervous system.