The atypical cadherin Flamingo is required for sensory axon advance beyond intermediate target cells

Abstract

The Drosophila atypical cadherin Flamingo plays key roles in a number of developmental processes. We have used the sensory nervous system of the Drosophila embryo to shed light on the mechanism by which Flamingo regulates axon growth. flamingo loss of function mutants display a highly penetrant sensory axon stall phenotype. The location of these axon stalls is stereotypic and corresponds to the position of intermediate target cells, with which sensory axons associate during normal development. This suggests that Flamingo mediates an interaction between the sensory neuron growth cones and these intermediate targets, which is required for continued axon advance. Mutant rescue experiments show ..