Postembryonic development of transit amplifying neuroblast lineages in the Drosophila brain

Our findings provide cellular and molecular evidence for the fact that DM neuroblasts are multipotent progenitors; thus, they represent the first identified progenitor cells in the fly brain that have neuroglioblast functions during postembryonic development. Moreover, our results demonstrate that the adult-specific neurons of the DM lineages arborize widely in the brain and also make a major contribution to the developing central complex. These findings suggest that the amplification of proliferation that characterizes DM lineages may be an important requirement for generating the large number of neurons required in highly complex neuropile structures such as the central complex in the Drosophila brain.