Developmental potentials of the cells of the male foreleg disc ofDrosophila : I. Pattern regulation in intact fragments.

1. The developmental potentials of the four quadrants of the male foreleg disc ofDrosophila melanogaster were analysed by culturing excised quadrants for 3 days and 10 days in adult hosts prior to metamorphosis. 2. The cultured pieces underwent different types of pattern regulation in a circular direction. The upper medial piece was able to regenerate the missing structures of the disc, thus confirming the findings of earlier reports. The three remaining pieces could undergo pattern duplication in mirror-image symmetry. The lower medial piece revealed in addition a slight capacity for regeneration from the vertical cut surface. 3. The duplicating pieces differed markedly in their frequencies of pattern duplication: duplications occurred with very high frequencies in lower medial pieces, with intermediate frequencies in upper lateral pieces, and with very low frequencies in lower lateral pieces. 4. Both lower lateral and upper lateral pieces underwent a progressive loss of most markers with increasing culture time. 5. Claws were regenerated solely by upper medial pieces. 6. Transdetermined structures, too, were encountered only in upper medial pieces. 7. The results are discussed with respect to the two major current models of pattern regulation in imaginal discs, the "gradient model" and the "clock model". 8. It is suggested that the differences in the frequencies of pattern duplication reflect the unequal spacing of circular positional values within the three duplicating quadrants. Under this assumption the data indicate a progressive decrease in the density of circular positional values with increasing distance from the upper medial quadrant of the disc.