ABSTRACT
The process of cell competition, whereby slowly dividing Minute cells are eliminated by faster-growing Minute+ cells in mosaic compartments of the Imaginal wing disc, is discussed. Evidence is presented suggesting that after completion of growth of the Imaginal discs, Minute+ cells no longer continue overgrowing and eliminating the Minute cells. The process of competition thus appears to be restricted to discs that are actively growing.
No cell competition can be detected in the histoblast cells that give rise to the adult abdomen. This observation, however, has been interpreted to be the result of an extremely long perdurance effect for the Minute+ product in these cells.
Frequently, many pwn bristles were found clustered closely together and many pwn clones were associated with empty bristle sockets. Either pwn is not a reliable marker for abdominal bristles, or else the pwn chromosome used here had accumulated a deleterious mutation affecting bristle differentiation.
