The dorsal/ventral compartment boundary inDrosophila: coincidence with the prospective operculum seam

Histochemical staining of the hypoderm ofDrosophila larvae for aldehyde-oxidase activity allowed detection of a row of cells destined to form the operculum seam, along which the pupal case opens when the adult ecloses. Analysis ofmal clones in hypoderms of gynandromorph larvae showed that the prospective operculum seam coincides, in part, with a line of clonal restriction that divides the thorax into dorsal and ventral halves. We propose that this line represents the embryonic dorsal/ventral compartment boundary.