When does determination occur in Drosophila embryos?

Small groups of blastoderm cells were transplanted from wild-type donor embryos into genetically marked host embryos of the same age. Donor cells were injected either into an homologous or an ectopic region of the recipient, and both donor and recipient embryos were allowed to develop. Donor flies were examined for defects in external structures. Recipients were scored for patches of donor-type marked tissue derived from the injected cells. After ectopic transfer, the donor cells recovered in chimaeric recipients differentiated structures consistent with the donor site of cell removal. No apparent fate change was observed. In the rare cases when both individuals of a donor/host pair survived, a direct correspondence could be made between the deleted region in the donor and the chimaeric patch in the host. The results show that blastoderm cells are stably determined to within a segment.