The control of organ growth is a fundamental aspect of animal development but remains poorly understood. The morphogen Dpp has long been considered as a general promoter of cell proliferation during Drosophila wing development. It is an ongoing debate whether the Dpp gradient is required for the uniform cell proliferation observed in the wing imaginal disc. Here, we investigated how the Dpp sig...

Locusta has strong fly wings to ensure its long distance migration, but the molecular mechanism that regulates the Locusta wing development is poorly understood. To address the developmental mechanism of the Locusta flying wing, we cloned the Dpp target gene spalt (sal) and analyzed its function in wing growth in the Locusta. The Locusta wing size is apparently reduced with vein defects when sa...

Possible grounds for Marx’s hypothesis of a tendentially falling rate of profit are investigated using a dynamic model of an accumulating capitalist economy. The core argument concerns the implications for profit dynamics of the process of wage determination and the time path of technical change when the rate of accumulation depends on the magnitude of the profit rate. The paper establishes con...

Compartment boundary formation plays an important role in development by separating adjacent developmental fields. Drosophila imaginal discs have proven valuable for studying the mechanisms of boundary formation. We studied the boundary separating the proximal A1 segment and the distal segments, defined respectively by Lim1 and Dll expression in the eye-antenna disc. Sharp segregation of the Li...

Nine human neurodegenerative diseases are due to expansion of a CAG repeat- encoding glutamine within the open reading frame of the respective genes. Polyglutamine (polyQ) expansion confers dominant toxicity, resulting in neuronal degeneration. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been shown to modulate programmed cell death during development. To address whether miRNA pathways play a role in neurodegenerat...

The rapid reduction in cell electropotentials induced by metabolic inhibitors is strong evidence for an electrogenic ion pump. According to Ohm's law, such a depolarization might be explained by a reduction in electric current, I, with unidirectional transport of a given ion, or an increase in permeability (decrease in resistance). With cells of etiolated seedlings of Pisum sativum L. cv. Alask...

The Hippo pathway has a central role in coordinating tissue growth and apoptosis. Mutations that compromise Hippo pathway activity cause tissue overgrowth and have been causally linked to cancer. In Drosophila, the transcriptional coactivator Yorkie mediates Hippo pathway activity to control the expression of cyclin E and Myc to promote cell proliferation, as well as the expression of bantam mi...

The transcription factor CLOCK (CLK) is essential for the development and maintenance of circadian rhythms in Drosophila. However, little is known about how CLK levels are controlled. Here we show that Clk mRNA is strongly regulated post-transcriptionally through its 3' UTR. Flies expressing Clk transgenes without normal 3' UTR exhibit variable CLK-driven transcription and circadian behaviour a...

Reconstructed fairy tales provide a different point of view and challenge the assumptions of a common set of values; for that reason, these stories provide a medium in which to examine power relationships in texts by applying a critical multicultural analysis (Botelho & Rudman, forthcoming, 2008, A critical multicultural analysis of children’s literature: Mirrors, windows and doors. New York: L...

In addition to establishing dendritic coverage of the receptive field, neurons need to adjust their dendritic arbors to match changes of the receptive field. Here, we show that dendrite arborization (da) sensory neurons establish dendritic coverage of the body wall early in Drosophila larval development and then grow in precise proportion to their substrate, the underlying body wall epithelium,...