The overall goal of this project is to investigate the translational regulatory machinery in dendrite development. I hypothesize that the translational control machinery first discovered in oogenesis and embryogenesis of Drosophila are conserved in neurons. Candidate genes that are known to be components of such machinery will be examined for possible involvement in dendrite morphogenesis. The following specific aims are proposed: 1) Examine the expression of Nanos, Pumilio, and Hunchback in Drosophila PNS. 2) Overexpression study of nanos, pumilio, and hunchback in dendrite development. 3) Loss-of-function analysis of nanos, pumilio, and hunchback in dendrite development. 4) Translational regulation of nanos in da neuron dendrite development. The proposed experiments will provide a start-point for further investigation of translational control machinery that regulates dendrite morphogenesis.