The extracellular protease AdamTS-B inhibits vein formation in the Drosophila wing

Vein patterning in the Drosophila wing provides a powerful tool to study regulation of various signaling pathways. Here we show that the ADAMTS extracellular protease AdamTS-B (CG4096) is expressed in the embryonic wing imaginal disc precursor cells and the wing imaginal disc, and functions to inhibit wing vein formation. Knock-down of AdamTS-B displayed posterior crossveins (PCVs) with either extra branches or deltas, or wider PCVs, and a wandering distal tip of the L5 longitudinal vein. Conversely, over-expression of AdamTS-B resulted in a complete absence of the PCV, an incomplete anterior crossvein, and missing distal end of the L5 longitudinal vein. We conclude that AdamTS-B inhibits wing vein formation through negative regulation of signaling pathways, possibly BMP as well as Egfr, displaying the complexity of roles for this family of extracellular proteases.