A Phenotypic Genetic And Molecular Analysis Of The Developing Drosophila Melanogaster Visual System

There is no multicellular animal whose genetics is so well understood as Drosophila melanogaster. An increasing number of biologists have, therefore, turned to the fruitfly in pursuit of such diverse areas as the molecular biology of eukaryotic cells, development and neurobiology. Indeed there are signs that Dro sophila may soon become the most central organism in biqlogy for genetic analysis of complex problems. The papers in this collection were presented at a conference on Development and Behavior of Drosophila held at the Tata Insti tute of Fundamental Research from 19th to 22nd December, 1979. The volume reflects the commonly shared belief of the participants that Drosophila has as much to contribute to biology in the future as it has in the past. We hope it will be of interest not merely to Dro sophilists but to all biologists. We thank Chetan Premani, Anil Gupta, K.S. Krishnan, Veronica Rodrigues, Hemant Chikermane and K. Vijay Raghavan for help with recording and transcription of the proceedings and Vrinda Nabar and K.V. Hareesh for editorial assistance. We thank Samuel Richman, Thomas Schmidt-Glenewinkel and T.R. Venkatesh for their valuable assistance in proofreading the manuscripts, and we also thank Patricia Rank for her excellent effort in the preparation of the final manuscripts. The conference was supported by a grant from Sir Dorabji Tata Trust.

1 Kevin Moses It is now 25 years since the study of the development of the compound eye in Drosophila really began with a classic paper (Ready et al. 1976). In 1864, August Weismann published a monograph on the development of Diptera and included some beautiful drawings of the developing imaginal discs (Weismann 1864). One of these is the first description of the third instar eye disc in which Weismann drew a vertical line separating a posterior domain that included a regular pattern of clustered cells from an anterior domain without such a pattern. Weismann suggested that these clusters were the precursors of the adult ommatidia and that the line marks the anterior edge of the eye. In his first suggestion he was absolutely correct - in his second he was wrong. The vertical line shown was not the anterior edge of the eye, but the anterior edge of a moving wave of patterning and cell type specification that 112 years later (1976) Ready, Hansen and Benzer would name the "morphogenetic furrow". While it is too late to hear from August Weismann, it is a particular pleasure to be able to include a chapter in this Volume from the first author of that 1976 paper: Don Ready! These past 25 years have seen an astonishing explosion in the study of the fly eye (see Fig.

A comprehensive portrayal of the behaviour genetics of the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) and the methods used in these studies.