The stellar content of a spiral arm of NGC 4321

The effects of the passage of a spiral arm through the disc of the giant Virgo Sc galaxy NGC 4321 are investigated with Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 images in two colours. Concentrating on a portion of the southern spiral arm of NGC 4321, we have applied a new program to solve for the star formation histories in the arm and interarm regions separately. The observational uncertainties and the variable crowding across the spiral arm are taken into account using the results of artificial star tests. In the interarm regions the data are consistent with a constant star formation rate for the last 50 Myr while the stars in the arm region show a star formation rate four times larger than in the interarm regions in the last 5 Myr.