ERECT WING, THE DROSOPHILA MEMBER OF A FAMILY OF DNA-BINDING PROTEINSIS REQUIRED IN IMAGINAL MYOBLASTS FOR FLIGHT-MUSCLE DEVELOPMENT

Citation
S. Desimone et al., ERECT WING, THE DROSOPHILA MEMBER OF A FAMILY OF DNA-BINDING PROTEINSIS REQUIRED IN IMAGINAL MYOBLASTS FOR FLIGHT-MUSCLE DEVELOPMENT, Development, 122(1), 1996, pp. 31-39
Citations number
44
Language
INGLESE
art.tipo
Article
Categorie Soggetti
Developmental Biology
Journal title
ISSN journal
0950-1991
Volume
122
Issue
1
Year of publication
1996
Pages
31 - 39
Database
ISI
SICI code
0950-1991(1996)122:1<31:EWTDMO>2.0.ZU;2-8
Abstract
The erect wing locus of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster encodes a protein, EWG, that shares extensive homology with the P3A2 DNA bindi ng protein of sea urchin and a recently identified mammalian transcrip tion factor. Loss-of-function erect wing alleles result in embryonic l ethality. Viable alleles of erect wing cause severe abnormalities of t he indirect flight muscles. We have analyzed the spatial pattern of er ect wing expression in the developing indirect flight muscles during p ostembryonic development. EWG is detected, 10 hours after puparium for mation, in myoblasts that will form the indirect flight muscles. The e arly events of muscle development are normal in ewg mutants. However, a few hours after the onset of erect wing expression in myoblasts, def ects are seen in the developing indirect flight muscles which subseque ntly degenerate. We present results that show that the normal developm ent of the indirect flight muscles requires erect wing expression in t he progenitor myoblasts themselves. Finally, we examine the role of ta rget muscles in the arborization of motor axons by studying the develo ping innervation to the flight muscle in erect wing mutants. Our study demonstrates, for the first time, a role for a regulatory gene expres sed in imaginal myoblasts in Drosophila.