Genetic control of Embryonic and Adult muscle development in Drosophila melanogaster by Mlp60A

Abstract

Many genetic regulatory networks are required to define the overall characters in a living organism. Characters which are necessary for survival in the wild are often canalized, such that despite genetic and environmental perturbations, organisms can produce phenotypes resembling the corresponding wild type ones. Studying such gene regulatory phenomena would not only advance our understanding of how cells could respond to genetic and environmental perturbations but may also provide cues to effective therapeutic interventions, in cases where perturbations lead to disorder/disease conditions. Striated muscles play an important role in mediating movement and locomotion in higher animals and hence are indispensable for survival and reproduction in the wild. Therefore, their development, which occurs in two phases, namely embryonic and adult phases, is very likely to be under robust genetic regulation. The development of both embryonic and adult muscles involves the expression and assembly of several myofibrillar proteins, leading to the formation of the highly ordered sarcomere structures, which are essential for normal muscle function. Even though the regulatory events involved in assembly of the sarcomeres have been widely addressed, the finer details of many of the molecular players involved, with respect to their functional roles, require a thorough investigation. Moreover, embryonic/foetal muscle development involves the expression and assembly of embryonic/foetal isoforms of several myofibrillar proteins, which are replaced by their adult counterparts in a tissue and spatio-temporal specific manner, during foetal to adult transition (postnatal isoform switching). The functional relevance and regulation of such developmental switching of isoforms also remains poorly understood. One protein implicated in the development of striated muscle fibres is the Muscle LIM Protein (MLP). LIM is an abbreviation derived from: Lin-11, Isl1 and Mec-3, the first three proteins of this family of proteins, to be identified...