Developmental constraints in the Drosophila wing

Selection experiments for shortening the four longitudinal veins in a wild population of Drosophila melanogaster have been performed to evaluate how a local change is integrated in the wing development. Our results show that, though many units of selection seem to exist within a given organ, these are strongly constrained within the developmental programme, in such a way that only some predictable forms are expected. The results are discussed in terms of the 'Entelechia' model proposed by Garcia-Bellido in which the intercalarity of positional values promoted by 'martial' genes in a given organ is the driving force for controlled cell proliferation.