Visualizing new dimensions in Drosophila myoblast fusion.
Visualizing new dimensions in Drosophila myoblast fusion.
Over several years, genetic studies in the model system, Drosophila melanogastor, have uncovered genes that when mutated, lead to a block in myoblast fusion. Analyses of these gene products have suggested that Arp2/3-mediated regulation of the actin cytoskeleton is crucial to myoblast fusion in the fly. Recent advances in imaging in Drosophila embryos, both in fixed and live preparations, have led to a new appreciation of both the three-dimensional organization of the somatic mesoderm and the cell biology underlying myoblast fusion. BioEssays 30:423-431, 2008. (c) 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Richardson B, Beckett K, Baylies M.
Program in Developmental Biology, Sloan Kettering Institute.