Fig. 5. Effects of loss of function of Notch and shaggy on the
stability of Armadillo. (A,D,G,J) GFP, green; (B,E,H,K) endogenous Armadillo,
red; (C,F,I,L) merge of GFP and Armadillo images. (A-C) Loss of function of
shaggy (loss of GFP) results in a cell autonomous elevation of the
levels of Armadillo, which remains largely associated with adherens junctions
(inset C, apical is up). Notice that only clones of a certain size (> about
five cells) show the elevated levels of Armadillo (arrowheads in A,B); this is
probably due to the long perdurance of Shaggy. The epithelium looks very thick
(compare to inset F) because the loss of shaggy affects the
epithelial organisation of the cells (A.M.A., unpublished data). (D-F)
Simultaneous loss of Notch and shaggy results in very
elevated levels of Armadillo that appear delocalised within the cytoplasm
(inset F). The clones are small. Loss of Notch function affects cell
proliferation (de Celis and
Garcia-Bellido, 1994). (G-I) Expression of wild-type Armadillo
under the control of ptcGal4 results in a Wingless-dependent
stabilisation of Armadillo (see also Fig. S3 and Fig. S4 in supplementary
material) in a narrow band at the AP border and, in particular, at the
intersection with the dorsoventral boundary (arrowhead in H) where levels of
Wingless are highest. Clones of wild-type cells (loss of GFP) do not change
the instability of the ectopic Armadillo (dots indicate regions in clones
where Armadillo has not accumulated). (J-L) Wing disc heterozygous for
Notch (Df(1)N81k/+). The ptcGal4-driven
expression of Armadillo is broader and contains more cells maintaining higher
levels of Armadillo than in wild type. Furthermore, within the Notch
mutant clones an increased number of cells have high levels of Armadillo
(compare with G-I). Notice some clones, that lie far from that AP boundary
(arrowhead in J-L) maintain high levels of Armadillo. N.B. In general we do
not observe changes in the levels of Armadillo as a result of loss of
Notch function alone, but in some experiments we observe an elevation
in the levels of Armadillo. This elevation is always observed in the
neighbourhood of the DV boundary (A.M.A., unpublished data). Unfortunately
this effect is not reproducible and therefore should remain anecdotal.