Antonio García-Bellido: A brief history of flies, lineages, and a new developmental genetic logic

Antonio García-Bellido: A brief history of flies, lineages, and a new developmental genetic logic Abstract Antonio García-Bellido was a pioneer of developmental biology in Spain who had the rare ability to see beyond the trees and grasp not just the forest, but entire landscapes. Intellectually and personally, he was indefatigable, uncompromising, and wholly committed to science. He led his trainees by example in his unflagging demands on honoring the data above all else. Antonio discovered the existence of “developmental compartments” in the wing of Drosophila and proposed that these territories corresponded to the realm of action of homeotic genes. He was a fierce defender of hypotheses that he thought best explained available data but did not cling blindly to ideas when they no longer served to understand the phenomena at hand. With his distinctive style he founded a successful school of Drosophila developmental geneticists that will sorely miss his unparalleled passion for science. Acknowledgments Author contributions J.F.d.C., L.A.B.-L., A.B., and C.E. wrote the paper. Competing interests The authors declare no competing interest. References 1 A. García-Bellido, Fenogenética del locus furrowed de Drosophila melanogaster. Genét. Iber. 15, 1–74 (1963). 2 J. F. de Celis, A. Garcia-Bellido, “Imaginal discs” in Brenner’s Encyclopedia of Genetics, S. Maloy, K. Hughes, Eds. (Academic Press, New York, USA, 2013), chap. 769, pp. 19–23, ISBN-13: 9780123749840. 3 E. Hadorn, Fractionating the fruit fly. Sci. Am. 206, 101–110 (1962). 4 A. García-Bellido, Pattern reconstruction by dissociated imaginal disk cells of Drosophila melanogaster. Dev. Biol. 14, 278–306 (1966). 5 E. Hadorn, “Transdetermination” in The Genetics and Biology of Drosophila, M. Ashburner, T. R. F. Wright, Eds. (Academic Press, 1978), vol. 2c, pp. 556–617. 6 A. García-Bellido, J. R. Merrian, Parameters of the wing imaginal disc development of Drosophila melanogaster. Dev. Biol. 24, 61–78 (1971). 7 A. García-Bellido, P. Ripoll, G. Morata, Developmental compartmentalisation of the wing disk of Drosophila. Nat. New Biol. 245, 251–253 (1973). 8 A. García-Bellido, E. B. Lewis, Autonomous cellular differentiation of homeotic bithorax mutants of Drosophila melanogaster. Dev. Biol. 48, 400–410 (1976). 9 G. Morata, A. García-Bellido, Developmental analysis of some mutants of the bithorax system of Drosophila. W. Roux’s Arch. Dev. Biol. 179, 125–143 (1976). 10 A. García-Bellido, P. Santamaria, Developmental analysis of the wing disc in the mutant engrailed of Drosophila melanogaster. Genetics 72, 87–104 (1972). 11 A. García-Bellido, Cell lineages and genes. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B. 312, 101–128 (1985). Information & Authors Information Published in Copyright Copyright © 2026 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. This article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND). Submission history Published online: June 24, 2026 Published in issue: June 30, 2026 Acknowledgments Author contributions J.F.d.C., L.A.B.-L., A.B., and C.E. wrote the paper. Competing interests The authors declare no competing interest. Authors Metrics & Citations Metrics Altmetrics Citations Cite this article Antonio García-Bellido: A brief history of flies, lineages, and a new developmental genetic logic, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 123 (26) e2614026123, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2614026123 (2026). Copied! Copying failed. Export the article citation data by selecting a format from the list below and clicking Export. View Options View options Download this article as a PDF file. PDFeReader View this article with eReader. eReader