Developmental integration is the covariation among morphological structures due to connections between the developmental processes that built them. Here we use the methods of geometric morphometrics to study integration in the wing of Drosophila melanogaster. In particular, we focus on the hypothesis that the anterior and posterior wing compartments are separate developmental units that vary in...

Earwig wings are highly foldable structures that lack internal muscles. The behaviour and shape changes of the wings during flight are yet unknown. We assume that they meet a great structural challenge to control the occurring deformations and prevent the wing from collapsing. At the folding structures especially, the wing could easily yield to the pressure. Detailed microscopy studies reveal a...

A flying insect generates aerodynamic forces through the active manipulation of the wing and the “passive” properties of deformability and wing shape. To investigate these “passive” properties, the flexural stiffness of dried forewings belonging to 10 butterfly species was compared to the butterflies’ gross morphological parameters to determine allometric relationships. The results show that fl...

The control of cell morphology is important for shaping animals during development. Here we address the role of the Wnt/ Wingless signal transduction pathway and two of its target genes, vestigial and shotgun (encoding E-cadherin), in controlling the columnar shape of Drosophila wing disc cells. We show that clones of cells mutant for arrow (encoding an essential component of the Wingless signa...

The control of cell morphology is important for shaping animals during development. Here we address the role of the Wnt/ Wingless signal transduction pathway and two of its target genes, vestigial and shotgun (encoding E-cadherin), in controlling the columnar shape of Drosophila wing disc cells. We show that clones of cells mutant for arrow (encoding an essential component of the Wingless signa...

The control of cell morphology is important for shaping animals during development. Here we address the role of the Wnt/Wingless signal transduction pathway and two of its target genes, vestigial and shotgun (encoding E-cadherin), in controlling the columnar shape of Drosophila wing disc cells. We show that clones of cells mutant for arrow (encoding an essential component of the Wingless signal...

The control of cell morphology is important for shaping animals during development. Here we address the role of the Wnt/ Wingless signal transduction pathway and two of its target genes, vestigial and shotgun (encoding E-cadherin), in controlling the columnar shape of Drosophila wing disc cells. We show that clones of cells mutant for arrow (encoding an essential component of the Wingless signa...

A method of designing the body of a swept wing-body combination, to obtain favourable wing-body interferenoe at transonio speeds, has been investigated in free flight at zero lift. Models of four different bodies, in combination with identical wings swept back 55 degrees, were flown within the range of Mach numbers between 0.8 and l-5 at Reynolds numbers, based on wing chord, up to 10 million. ...

The goal of this investigation is to study the effect of wing sweep angle on the horizontal wing-body- tail configurations in subsonic flow. For this purpose, a series of wind tunnel tests were conducted on a model having a moveable horizontal tail and a wing planform with different sweep angles. Tests were performed at different tail deflection angles. Static surface pressure distribution over...

During development, morphogenesis involves migration and changes in the shape of epithelial sheets, both of which require coordination of cell adhesion. Thus, while modulation of integrin-mediated adhesion to the ECM regulates epithelial motility, cell-cell adhesion via cadherins controls the remodelling of epithelial sheets. We have used the Drosophila wing epithelium to demonstrate that cell-...