QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s):
Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents

First published online March 6, 2009
doi: 10.1242/10.1242/dev.026302

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Supplementary Material Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Shelton, C. Articles by Abmayr, S. M. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Shelton, C. Articles by Abmayr, S. M. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

The immunoglobulin superfamily member Hbs functions redundantly with Sns in interactions between founder and fusion-competent myoblasts

Claude Shelton^1,*, Kiranmai S. Kocherlakota^1,2,*, Shufei Zhuang¹ and Susan M. Abmayr^1,3,

¹ Stowers Institute for Medical Research, Kansas City, MO 64110, USA.
² The Huck Institutes of Life Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, PA 16802, USA.
³ Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Kansas Medical Center, 3901 Rainbow Boulevard, MS 3038, Kansas City, KS 66160, USA.

Author for correspondence (e-mail: sma{at}stowers-institute.org)

Accepted 23 January 2009

The body wall muscle of a Drosophila larva is generated by fusion between founder cells and fusion-competent myoblasts (FCMs). Initially, a founder cell recognizes and fuses with one or two FCMs to form a muscle precursor, then the developing syncitia fuses with additional FCMs to form a muscle fiber. These interactions require members of the immunoglobulin superfamily (IgSF), with Kin-of-IrreC (Kirre) and Roughest (Rst) functioning redundantly in the founder cell and Sticks-and-stones (Sns) serving as their ligand in the FCMs. Previous studies have not resolved the role of Hibris (Hbs), a paralog of Sns, suggesting that it functions as a positive regulator of myoblast fusion and as a negative regulator that antagonizes the activity of Sns. The results herein resolve this issue, demonstrating that sns and hbs function redundantly in the formation of several muscle precursors, and that loss of one copy of sns enhances the myoblast fusion phenotype of hbs mutants. We further show that excess Hbs rescues some fusion in sns mutant embryos beyond precursor formation, consistent with its ability to drive myoblast fusion, but show using chimeric molecules that Hbs functions less efficiently than Sns. In conjunction with a physical association between Hbs and SNS in cis, these data account for the previously observed UAS-hbs overexpression phenotypes. Lastly, we demonstrate that either an Hbs or Sns cytodomain is essential for muscle precursor formation, and signaling from IgSF members found exclusively in the founder cells is not sufficient to direct precursor formation.

Key words: Myoblast fusion, Sns, Hbs, Cell adhesion, Muscle development, Drosophila

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				S. Zhuang, H. Shao, F. Guo, R. Trimble, E. Pearce, and S. M. Abmayr Sns and Kirre, the Drosophila orthologs of Nephrin and Neph1, direct adhesion, fusion and formation of a slit diaphragm-like structure in insect nephrocytes Development, July 15, 2009; 136(14): 2335 - 2344. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]