Cell shapes on the surface of the Drosophila wing imaginal disc By DANNY

Antibodies that bind to antigens on the surfaces of imaginal disc cells can be used to visualize the cellular morphology of the disc exterior. Using this technique, we have examined wing imaginal discs at various times during the third larval instar, paying particular attention to those areas where the anteroposterior and dorsoventral compartment borders are located. We have been unable to detect any distinguishing feature in the shapes of the cells at the anteroposterior compartment border. However, there is a line of unusually shaped cells extending across the disc, from anterior to posterior and which, in the central region of the disc, takes the form of a shallow groove in the epithelium. A number of observations suggest that this line is coincident with the dorsoventral compartment border.