Abstract
Summary
Vein patterning in the Drosophila wing provides a powerful tool to study regulation of various signaling pathways. Here we show that the ADAMTS extracellular protease AdamTS‐B (CG4096) is expressed in the embryonic wing imaginal disc precursor cells and the wing imaginal disc, and functions to inhibit wing vein formation. Knock‐down of AdamTS‐B displayed posterior crossveins (PCVs) with either extra branches or deltas, or wider PCVs, and a wandering distal tip of the L5 longitudinal vein. Conversely, over‐expression of AdamTS‐B resulted in a complete absence of the PCV, an incomplete anterior crossvein, and missing distal end of the L5 longitudinal vein. We conclude that AdamTS‐B inhibits wing vein formation through negative regulation of signaling pathways, possibly BMP as well as Egfr, displaying the complexity of roles for this family of extracellular proteases.