Institut für Biologie III
Schänzlestr.1
D-79104 Freiburg i. Brsg.
Germany
Boschert U., Ramos R.G.P., Tix S.,
Technau G.M., and Fischbach K.-F. (1990). Genetic and Developmental
Analysis of irreC, a genetic function required for optic
chiasm formation in Drosophila. J. Neurogenetics 6,
153-171
Ramos R. G. P., Igloi G. L., Lichte B.,
Baumann U., Maier D., Schneider T., Brandst
auml;tter J. H.,
Fr
ouml;hlich A. and Fischbach K.-F. (1993). The irregular chiasm C -
roughest locus of Drosophila, which affects axonal projections
and programmed cell death, encodes a novel immunoglobulin-like
protein. Genes and Development, 7, 2533-2547
Schneider, T., Reiter, C., Eule, E.,
Bader, B., Lichte, B., Nie, Z., Schimansky, T., Ramos, R.G.P.,
und Fischbach, K.-F. (1995). Neural recognition in Drosophila: restricted expression of irreC-rst is
required for normal axonal projections of columnar neurons.
Neuron, 15, 259-271
Reiter, C., Schimansky T., Nie Z., and Fischbach K.-F. (1996). Reorganization of
membrane contacts prior to apoptosis in the Drosophila retina: The role of the IrreC-rst protein.
Development 122, 1931-1940.
Specific recognition between membranes is a crucial process in development,
not only in the establishment of neural connectivity. The identification of the molecular players involved
is an important task of modern biology.
The irreC-rst gene was identified in a mutant screen for axonal projection defects in Drosophila
(1). It codes for a new member of the
immunoglobulin superfamily (2), a cell adhesion molecule
(3) that has recently been shown
to mediate membrane recognition and cell rearrangements during eye development (4). Here it will be
argued that the role of the IrreC-rst protein during eye development
might be a model for its function in the optic lobe, where it is expressed
in a highly specific temporal and spatial pattern during axonogenesis and target
recognition (3).