A gain-of-function mutation in , causes precocious cell death of wing epidermal cells in .

In , wing epidermal cells undergo programmed cell death as the last step of metamorphosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of , particularly the mutation ( ), an allele of , in the cell death. The wing epithelial cell death is suppressed by loss-of-function mutation of , indicating that the death is governed by a cascade involving . Examination of the cell death in showed that precocious death started at G stage, 3 h before eclosion. Thus, mutated-HID in the mutant was activated at G stage, supporting the gain-of-function effect of mutation.