Boundary formation in the Drosophila wing: functional dissection of Capricious and Tartan

Cells in multicellular organisms often do not intermingle freely with each other. Differential cell affinities contribute to organizing cells into different tissues. Drosophila limbs and rhombomeres of the vertebrate hindbrain are subdivided into compartments. Cells in adjacent compartments do not mix. The wing primordium is subdivided into dorsal (D) and ventral (V) compartments by the activity of the LIM-homeodomain protein Apterous in D cells. The leucine-rich repeats transmembrane proteins Capricious and Tartan have been shown to contribute to formation of the affinity boundary between dorsal and ventral compartments. Here, we have carried out a structure-function analysis of Capricious and Tartan. We present evidence that both the extracellular and intracellular domains are required for the establishment of a DV affinity boundary. Our data suggest that the extracellular domains of Capricious and Tartan may work as ligands of an unknown D cell surface protein. Their intracellular domains may be required to transduce a signal necessary for the establishment of the DV boundary.