Transcription pattern of the Drosophila segmentation gene hairy

Segmentation of the Drosophila embryo requires expression of the pair-rule genes, mutations of which cause reiterated deletions in alternate segments along the antero-posterior body axis. We find that transcripts of one such gene, hairy, accumulate in eight distinct regions of the early embryo. This pattern of expression is compared with that of another pair-rule gene, fushi tarazu, and its dependence on maternally expressed genes is described.