The background brightness of the milky way near 2500 A between lparallel= 72 degrees and 126 degrees

Data from a rocket experiment show details which were not known from ground-based observations.     

Regulation of segment polarity genes in the Drosophila blastoderm by fushi tarazu and even skipped

During the late cellular blastoderm stage of Drosophila embryo-genesis the segmentation genes engrailed, en, and wingless, wg, become expressed in two series of 14 stripes which will subsequently coincide with the anterior and posterior limits of each parasegment. Previous studies have shown that the establishment of the pattern of en stripes depends upon the activity of the homoeobox-containing pair-rule genes fushi tarazu, ftz and even skipped, eve. Here we show that these two genes also control the spatial expression of wg. Whereas ftz and eve behave as activators of en we find that both genes are required to repress wg expression, so that wg becomes expressed only in the narrow stripes of cells which come to separate the ftz and eve bands at the end of the blastoderm stage. In contrast, we propose that the precise positioning of the en stripes depends upon signals generated in a combinatorial manner by the overlaps between the ftz or eve domains and those of other pair rule genes, specifically odd paired, opa and paired, prd.     

The correct activation of Antennapedia and bithorax complex genes requires the fushi tarazu gene

In the Drosophila embryo the establishment and specification of metameric units depends upon the selective activation of the segmentation and the homoeotic selector genes. The former are necessary for establishing the appropriate number of metameric or parasegmental units, whereas the latter control the pathways of differentiation followed by particular parasegments. Classical embryological manipulations have show n that these processes must be closely coordinated during normal development. However, previous studies of pair-rule genes have led to the suggestion that the specification of segmental identity proceeds independently of the establishment of metameres as physical units. These apparently conflicting perspectives can be reconciled by envisaging a common maternally derived positional information system which is independently interpreted by the components of both processes. In the case of the partitioning process, the gap and pair-rule genes would be instrumental in translating this information, whereas the activation of the homeotic genes would be mediated via other intermediaries (see ref. 9 for review). It is difficult to see, however, how such a system could ensure the precise regulation of the tw o types of genes implicit in the final differentiated pattern. This difficulty has led to the suggestion that the segmentation mechanism must define the precise boundaries of selector gene expression. Here we confirm this suggestion and propose that the gene fushi tarazu plays a key role in this process, integrating the processes of metameric partitioning and regional specification in the Drosophila embryo.     

A protein with several possible membrane-spanning domains encoded by the Drosophila segment polarity gene patched

The patterning of cells in insect segments requires the exchange of information between cells, which in Drosophila depends on the activity of members of the segment-polarity class of genes. Here we report the molecular characterization of one such gene, patched. We find that patched encodes a large protein with several possible membrane-spanning domains and is expressed in a complex pattern during embryogenesis.