Genetic tools available in Drosophila melanogaster provide an
opportunity to complement and extend the analysis of the ENS at
a cellular and axonal level. Genetic approaches have already been
used in the analysis of ENS and foregut development during
embryogenesis (Gonzalez-Gaitan and Jäckle, 1995; Pankratz and
Hoch, 1995). Subsequently, the basic neuroanatomy of the ENS in
association with the foregut structures have been characterized
in the Diptera larva (Spieß et al., 2008). The Drosophila larval ENS
shows similar overall structure as other insects. The ENS is connected
to the CNS through the antennal nerve (AN). The bilateral
AN fuses with the frontal nerve junction via the frontal connectives,
which bifurcates into the anteriorly projecting frontal nerve
(FN) and the posteriorly projecting recurrent nerve (or nervus