Figure 8 .

CG32479 is both necessary and sufficient to control the formation of scutellar bristles. The adult scutellar bristles (A) are differentiated from macrochaete SOP cells in early third-instar wing imaginal discs, which can be marked by the neur-lacZ reporter (magenta; B-F′). Knocking down the expression of CG32479 by the ptc-Gal4 driver (green) led to increased numbers of scutellar bristles in the adult notum (stars; C): 64% of flies with 5−6 scutellar bristles and 36% of flies with more than 6 scutellar bristles (n = 83). This fully penetrant scutellar bristle phenotype was a consequence of expanded SOP fate observed in wing discs along the ptc-Gal4 expression pattern (arrows; D). In contrast, overexpressing CG32479 resulted in loss of anterior scutellar bristles (100% penetrant, n = 25; stars; E) and reduction of SOP cells (arrows; F). Enlarged boxed areas shown in B′, D′, and F′ highlight distinct neur-lacZ staining in the scutellar (SC) and dorsal-central (DC) SOPs resulted from altered expression of CG32479. Note that the expression pattern of the ptc-Gal4 driver (marked by GFP; B-F′) overlaps the SC but not the DC SOPs.