Mosaic analysis of hypomorphic emc reveals the tendency of mutant cells to proliferate along veins as long stripes. Large clones abuting two adjacent veins obliterate the corresponding inter-vein, affecting the size and shape of the whole wing. Thus, the emc gene participates in the control of cell proliferation within inter-vein regions in the wing. Similar effects are found in the haltere and the leg. The adult Drosophila wing consists of two wing surfaces, apposed by their basal membranes, which first come into contact at metamorphosis, following wing disc eversion.
Contact is crucial.
Dorsal-ventral contact apposition was prevented during wing imaginal disc morphogenesis by implanting fragments of discs into metamorphosing hosts. In these implants, longitudinal veins differentiate in both surfaces, but exhibit wider than normal corrugation. When apposed to a lack of vein differentiation in the dorsal surface, vein differentiation fails in distal vein territories, preferentially in the ventral surface. Conversely, extra differentiation as in plexus , extramachrochaetae, HS-rhomboid 27B, Notch and Delta mutants, causes extra veins in clones, not only in the wing surface of the clone, but also in the opposite wing surface. Non-autonomous effects are observed in the same wing surface, a phenomenon called 'connectivity'.