Gustatory sensilla in the blowfly Phormia regina contain five phenotypically distinct neurons. The neurons are thought to arise from a common precursor, however, little is known about their lineage or about how each one comes to assume a unique fate. This study examines the possibility that the neurons arise from a repeatedly dividing stem cell, in which case, the neuronal fate may be determined by birth order. To determine if the neurons are born at different times, their times of birth were assessed. This was achieved by using Hydroxyurea to arrest the gustatory neural precursors at different times throughout the development of the sensillum. Thus, each neuron's time of birth, relative to the arrest, was reflected by its presence or absence. The results show that the five neurons are born in a relatively short interval, and hence, cannot arise from five successive divisions of a stem cell. Therefore, the fate of each neuron cannot be determined solely by its time of birth.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.56647 |
| Date | January 1992 |
| Creators | Banks, Stan R. |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Biology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001314390, proquestno: AAIMM80421, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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