20E-induced expression facilitates developmental transitions depending on chromosome accessibility of enhancers.

Transcription factors and histone modification-mediated chromatin accessibility coordinately regulate spatiotemporal expression of genes that control growth and development. It is well documented that juvenile hormone-activated Kr-h1 antagonizes 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E)-induced expression of the pupal specifier to sustain larval status in holometabolous insects. Here, we revealed that during the larval-prepupal transition in , the 20E-activated axis is a prerequisite for wing disc morphogenesis.

The appearance of cytoplasmic cytochrome C precedes apoptosis during Drosophila salivary gland degradation.

Apoptosis is an important process for organism development that functions to eliminate cell damage, maintain homeostasis, and remove obsolete tissues during morphogenesis. In mammals, apoptosis is accompanied by the release of cytochrome C (Cyt-c) from mitochondria to the cytoplasm. However, whether this process is conserved in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, remains controversial.