AbstractThe Drosophila genome encodes 17 members of the cadherin family of adhesion molecules, which in vertebrates has been implicated in patterning the nervous system through cell and axon sorting. With only a few exceptions all cadherins show widespread expression in the larval brain. What expression patterns have in common is that 1) they are global, in the sense that all lineages of the central brain or optic lobe, or both, show expression; and 2) expression is stage‐specific: some cadherins are expressed only in primary neurons (located closest to the neuropile), others in early secondary neurons (near the brain surface), or primaries plus late secondaries. The Fat‐like cadherins, Fat and Dachsous, as well as Cad96Ca and Cad74A, are expressed in the epithelial optic lobe anlagen, which matches the widespread epithelial expression of these molecules in the embryo. DE‐cadherin is restricted to immature secondary neurons and glia; by contrast, DN‐cadherin, Flamingo, Cad87A, Cad99C, and Calsyntenin‐1 appear in differentiating primary neurons and, at a later stage, some or all secondary neurons. Cad87A is strongly enriched apically in epithelia and in neuronal dendrites. Fat‐like, Cad86C, Cad88C, Cad89D, and Dret are expressed ubiquitously in embryonic and larval brains at low or moderate levels. We conclude from this analysis that cadherins are likely to play a role in ‘generic’ neural functions, such as neurite fasciculation, branching, and synapse formation. J. Comp. Neurol. 506:469–488, 2008. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.