Generation and differentiation of lamina neurons and glia appear to be normal judging by expression of cell type specific markers Dachshund and Repo. Photoreceptor axons appear to favor feng positive regions of the lamina tissue suggesting that feng helps provide a permissive or an attractive environment for the incoming photoreceptor axons. A P element allele of feng is identified. Genomic region surrounding the P element insertion is characterized. We have obtained two candidate transcripts.
Further analysis is underway to determine the molecular nature of feng .