The mushroom body neuropils of the larval brain have regions that share neurons and functions with the adult and larval-specific regions built with 'doomed' neurons or cells that trans-differentiate for temporary larval function before assuming their adult phenotypes at metamorphosis.

Analyses of a developmentally regulated Drosophila myofiber remodeling program provide insight into induced autophagy required for T-tubule membrane reorganization, and uncover a conserved Rab2 role in autophagosome-lysosome fusion.

Descending interneurons maintain synaptic connectivity and behavioral function despite pruning during metamorphosis, showing that synaptic specificity is established twice at different life stages.

Axonal arborisation growth is regulated by dynamic, focal localisations of Neurexin and Neuroligin that provide stability for filopodia, enabling a 'stick and grow'-based mechanism, wholly independent of synapse formation.

This sesquiterpene hormone likely acted as a morphogenesis-to-differentiation switch in archaic embryos before it evolved its postembryonic function as the status quo regulator of insect metamorphosis.

In Drosophila melanogaster, nutrition controls body size by acting through the Forkhead Box class O (FoxO)/Ultraspiracle complex to regulate nutrition-sensitive ecdysone biosynthesis, thereby controlling the switch to stop growth.

Spatial and temporal cues intersect, likely via enhancer-promoter looping, to turn on a master identity switch that in turn dictates natural lineage reprogramming with high efficiency and temporospatial precision.

Juvenile and adult metabolism are constrained from evolving independently from each other even in a species that lacks developmental continuity between juvenile and adult organs.

The elementary units of a fruit fly behavioral sequence are described at single-muscle resolution and shown to exhibit variability that is subject to neuromodulatory regulation.