Comparative Analysis of Muscle and Locomotion Patterns in Drosophila Species

Download or read book Comparative Analysis of Muscle and Locomotion Patterns in Drosophila Species written by Mirela Belu and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 69 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Drosophila, muscle cells develop from the mesoderm, the middle germ layer of the embryo. During myogenesis each muscle fiber in the pattern is prefigured by a single founder cell, which seeds muscle formation by fusing with surrounding fusion-competent myoblasts. In this work, we have examined the fate of mesodermal precursors in four Drosophila species that display variations in mesoderm size. We characterized a newly discovered morphological difference in muscle size and locomotion patterns between these species. First, our comparison indicates that the overall muscle pattern is conserved while the total number of myoblasts within a fiber is species- specific and depends on the mesoderm width. This suggests that the number of founder cells has not changed during evolution, while the cell-counting mechanism that regulates myoblast fusion is differently regulated. Second, we find that each species display characteristic NMJs and locomotion patterns which are not depended exclusively on muscle size. Finally, we provide evidence for a maternal inheritance of both muscle size and locomotion behavior in third instar larvae.