Drosophila melonogaster eye
This way cool image is a cross section of the developing compound eye of a Drosophila melonogaster, a fruit fly that is the workhorse of modern genetics and developmental biology. Using a laser-scanning confocal microscope, biologists can home in on early events in development. They are able to see, as we can here, how specific genes direct cells to become one or another part of an organism. The grail of the group that provided us with this image is to understand how the visual system and retina develop. They want to know how precursor cells become photoreceptor neurons, the specialized cells of the eye that enable us to take in light and then process it into representative images of whatever it is we are looking at. Why study a fly’s eye? Well, first of all, much is known about the genetic makeup of Drosophila so its easier for scientists to home in on the important genes that direct development. Secondly, it can tell us something about human eyes since humans and fruit flies probably evolved from the same common ancestor in the very, very distant past, and because we share a common master regulatory switch for eye development.
This gonzo image was provided by Kevin Moses of the Graduate Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences at Emory University. This work is supported by the National Science Foundation.