Secret behind hard exoskeletons, spreading wing...( cted with central nervous system sample...)

The researchers injected samples of central nervous systems from the fruit fly mutants into blow flies that had been treated to prevent bursicon release. The shells of the blow flies did not harden nor darken after the injection as they would have if they had been injected with central nervous system samples from normal flies. These results were consistent with the theory that the lack of bursicon in the fruit fly mutants' central nervous systems was responsible for their defects.

The mutants also revealed a surprise: Not only were their shells not properly formed, but they could not expand their wings.

"This means that bursicon has a second function--not just for hardening of the exoskeleton, but also for wing expansion," Honegger said.

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Contact: Melanie Catania
melanie.catania@vanderbilt.edu
615-322-7970
Vanderbilt University
12-Jul-2004