Compound eye formation in Drosophila involves distinct processes such as cell proliferation, differentiation and cell death, resulting in the generation of all its different cell types and stereotypical ommatidial arrangement. Mutations affecting retinal cell death cause the appearance of extra cells and disorganization of the adult ommatidia leading to a "rough" eye phenotype as seen in echinus (ec) and roughest (rst) mutants. During an analysis of the X chromosomal region 3F aiming at the identification the ec transcription unit we started the characterization of a cDNA (GH07910) corresponding to one of two transcripts from an annotated gene encoding a serine-threonine kinase (BDGP) differing in the first exon and 3'UTR regions. We have generated three independent transgenic strains of that cDNA. The ectopic expression of the cDNA in the eye using GAL4-UAS system in a wild type background resulted in a rough eye phenotype with severe alterations of the ommatidial structure. This result suggests that GH07910 can take part in the retinal development. In addition, ectopic expression of that cDNA in a rst mutant background resulted in altered eye structure with disorganization of the ommatidial structure and lack of pigmentation. However although the expression pattern of the GH07910 cDNA appears to be altered in ec mutants, neither the ectopic expression of the GH07910 cDNA in an ec mutant background nor complementation tests with a P-element mutant affecting the structure of GH07910 primary transcript resulted in any rescue the ec eye phenotype, indicating that this transcript is, most likely, not related to ec.