During Drosophila embryogenesis, mesodermal cells are recruited to form a complex pattern of larval muscles. The formation of the pattern is initiated by the segregation of a special class of founder myoblasts. Single founders fuse with neighbouring nonfounder myoblasts to form the precursors of individual muscles. Founders and the muscles that they give rise to have specific patterns of gene expression and it has been suggested that it is the expression of these founder cell genes that determines individual muscle attributes such as size, shape, insertion sites and innervation. We find that the segmentation gene Kruppel is expressed in a subset of founders and muscles, regulates specific patterns of gene expression in these cells and is required for the acquisition of proper muscle identity. We show that gain and loss of Kruppel expression in sibling founder cells is sufficient to switch these cells, and the muscles that they give rise to, between alternative cell fates.
REFERENCES
Abmayr
S. M.
, Erickson
M. S.
, Bour
B. A.
(1995
) Embryonic development of the larval body wall musculature of Drosophila melanogaster.
Trends Genet
11
, 153
–159
Bate
M.
(1990
) The embryonic development of larval muscles in Drosophila.
Development
110
, 791
–804
Baylies
M. K.
, Bate
M.
(1996
) twist: A myogenic Switch in Drosophila.
Science
272
, 1481
–1484
Bourgouin
C.
, Lundgren
S. E.
, Thomas
J. B.
(1992
) apterous is a Drosophila LIM domain gene required for the development of a subset of embryonic muscles.
Neuron
9
, 549
–561
Brand
A. H.
, Perrimon
N.
(1993
) Targeted gene expression as a means of altering cell fates and generating dominant phenotypes.
Development
118
, 401
–415
Carmena
A.
, Bate
M.
, Jimenez
F.
(1995
) lethal of scute, a proneural gene, participates in the specification of muscle progenitors during Drosophila embryogenesis.
Genes Dev
9
, 2373
–2383
Dohrmann
C.
, Azpiazu
N.
, Frasch
M.
(1990
) A new Drosophila homeobox gene is expressed in mesodermal precursor cells of distinct muscles during embryogenesis.
Genes Dev
4
, 2098
–2111
Frasch
M.
, Hoey
T.
, Rushlow
C.
, Doyle
H. J.
, Levine
M.
(1987
) Characterization and localization of the even-skipped protein of Drosophila.
EMBO J
6
, 749
–759
Gaul
U.
, Seifert
E.
, Schuh
R.
, Jäckle
H.
(1987
) Analysis of Kruppel protein distribution during early Drosophila development reveals posttranscriptional regulation.
Cell
50
, 639
–647
Hatta
K.
, Schilling
T. F.
, BreMiller
R. A.
, Kimmel
C. B.
(1990
) Specification of jaw muscle identity in zebrefish: correlation with engrailed -homeodomain expression.
Science
250
, 802
–805
Keller
C. A.
, Erickson
M. S.
, Abmayr
S. M.
(1997
) Misexpression of nautilus induces myogenesis in cardioblasts and alters the pattern of somatic muscles fibers.
Dev. Biol
181
, 197
–212
Kiehart
D. P.
, Feghali
R.
(1986
) Cytoplasmic myosin from Drosophila melanogaster.
J. Cell Biol
103
, 1517
–1525
Lints
T. J.
, Parsons
L. M.
, Hartley
L.
, Lyons
I.
, Harvey
R. P.
(1993
). Nkx-2.5: a novel murine homeobox gene expressed in early heart progenitor cells and their myogenic descendants.
Development
119
, 419
–431
Michelson
A. S.
, Abmayr
S.
, Bate
M.
, Martinez Arias
A.
, Maniatis
T.
(1990
) Expression of a Myo-D family member prefigures muscle pattern in Drosophila embryos.
Genes Dev
4
, 2086
–2097
Nose
A.
, Mahajan
V. B.
, Goodman
C. S.
(1992
) Connectin: A homophilic cell adhesion molecule expressed on a subset of muscles and the motoneurons that innervate them in Drosophila.
Cell
70
, 553
–567
Patapoutian
A.
, Miner
J. H.
, Lyons
G. E.
, Wold
B.
(1993
) Isolated sequences from the linked myf-5 and MRF4 genes drive distinct patterns of muscle specific expression in transgenic mice.
Development
118
, 61
–69
Patel
N. H.
, Condron
B. G.
, Zinn
K.
(1994
) Pair rule expression patterns of even-skipped are found in both short-and long-germ beetles.
Nature
367
, 429
–432
Romani
S.
, Jimenez
F.
, Hoch
M.
, Patel
N. H.
, Taubert
H.
, Jäckle
H.
(1996
) Kruppel, a Drosophila segmentation gene, participates in the specification of neurons and glial cells.
Mech. Dev
60
, 95
–107
Ruiz-Gomez
M.
, Ghysen
A.
(1993
) The expression and role of a proneural gene, achaete, in the development of the larval Drosophila nervous system.
EMBO J
12
, 1221
–1230
Rushton
E.
, Drysdale
R.
, Abmayr
S. M.
, Michelson
A. M.
, Bate
M.
(1995
) Mutations in a novel gene, myoblast city, provide evidence in support of the founder cell hypothesis for Drosophila muscle development.
Development
121
, 1979
–1988
Shield
M. A.
, Haugen
H. S.
, Clegg
C. H.
, Hauschka
S. D.
(1996
) E-box sites and a proximal regulatory region of the muscle creatine kinase gene differentially regulate expression in diverse skeletal muscles and cardiac muscle of transgenic mice.
Mol. Cell. Biol
16
, 5058
–5068
Van Vactor
D.
, Sink
H.
, Fambrough
D.
, Tsoo
R.
, Goodman
C. S.
(1993
) Genes that control neuromuscular specificity in Drosophila.
Cell
73
, 1137
–1153
Wieschaus
E.
, Nusslein-Volhard
C.
, Kluding
H.
(1984
) Kruppel, a gene whose activity is required early in the zygotic genome for normal embryonic segmentation.
Dev. Biol
104
, 172
–186
Williams
J. A.
, Bell
J. B.
, Carroll
S. B.
(1991
) Control of Drosophila wing and haltere development by the nuclear vestigial gene product.
Genes Dev
5
, 2481
–2495
This content is only available via PDF.
© 1997 by Company of Biologists
1997
-JournalMeeting.png?versionId=3773)
(update)-ImmuneSI.png?versionId=3773)
-GSWorkshop.png?versionId=3773)
(update)-InPreprints.png?versionId=3773)
-FocalPlaneNetworkLaunch.png?versionId=3773)
