Brain Development in Drosophila melanogaster

The central nervous system (CNS) represents the organ with the highest structural and functional complexity. Accordingly, uncovering the mechanisms leading to cell diversity, patterning and connectivity in the CNS is one of the major challenges in developmental biology. The developing CNS of the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster is an ideal model system to study these processes. Several principle questions regarding neurogenesis (like stem cell formation, cell fate specification, axonal path...