We use the model system organisms, the fruit fly and the grasshopper for these studies, as we wish to make very controlled cellular and molecular perturbations on single cells in vivo. We are also taking advantage of the rapidly emerging fly genome project to identify new molecular components of these developmental decisions. Development, in press. A midline associated FGF signal temporally regulates serotonergic neuron development. Neuron, in press.
Regulated tension determines axonal pattern.