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Development 129, 3925-3934 (2002)
© 2002 The Company of Biologists Limited

Slow as Molasses is required for polarized membrane growth and germ cell migration in Drosophila

Jennifer A. Stein1, Heather Tarczy Broihier1,2, Lisa A. Moore1,3 and Ruth Lehmann1,*

1 Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Developmental Genetics Program, Skirball Institute at NYU School of Medicine, 540 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA
2 Department of Genetics, Washington University School of Medicine, 4566 Scott Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA
3 Incyte Genomics, 3160 Porter Drive, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA

*Author for correspondence (e-mail: lehmann{at}saturn.med.nyu.edu)

Accepted 21 May 2002

Drosophila germ cell migration is directed by attractive and repulsive guidance cues. We have identified a novel gene, slow as molasses (slam), which is required for germ cell migration. In slam zygotic mutants, germ cells fail to transit off the midgut into the mesoderm. We show that slam is required at this stage in parallel to HMG Coenzyme A reductase, a previously identified germ cell migration gene. Removal of both zygotic and maternal slam results in an earlier defect: a failure to form a cellular blastoderm. Consistent with this phenotype, we found that slam is one of the earliest genes to be transcribed in the embryo, and Slam protein localizes to the growing basal-lateral membrane during blastoderm formation, but Slam is not detected during later stages of embryogenesis. Because slam RNA and protein are expressed earlier than the time when we observe defects in germ cell migration, we propose that Slam is required for the localization of a signal to the basal side of blastoderm cells that is needed later in the posterior midgut to guide germ cells.

Key words: Drosophila, Germ cells, Cell migration, Cellularization, Cell polarity






© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2002