The high levels of transcript in 0-3 hour embryos indicate a maternally supplied message . The expression pattern of dpa is dynamic during gastrulation and germband extension.
Most tissues express the transcript at high levels but some areas have very little or no expression.
The epidermal expression remains high until late stage 11, when it is extinguished. Expression is then found in the delaminated neuroblasts of the CNS and the sensory organ precursors of the PNS . Most or all cells in the ventral nerve cord and brain show high transcript levels from stages 10 through 12, whereas only a subset of CNS cells express the transcript from stages 13 onwards. Larval Expression of dpa is detected in cells of the third instar larvae in eye imaginal disc cells ahead of the morphogenetic furrow, and in a tight band behind it, but not in the furrow itself, coinciding with the first and second mitotic waves of proliferating cells. The binding of MCMs to chromatin oscillates in conjunction with progress through the mitotic cell cycle.