The emergence of patterned movement during late embryogenesis of Drosophila.

Full Abstract

Larval behavioral patterns arise in a gradual fashion during late embryogenesis as the innervation of the somatic musculature and connectivity within the central nervous system develops. In this paper, we describe in a quantitative manner the maturation of behavioral patterns. Early movements are locally restricted "twitches" of the body wall, involving single segments or parts of segments. These twitches occur at a low frequency and have low amplitude, reflecting weak muscle contractions. Towards later stages twitches increase in frequency and amplitude and become integrated into coordinated movements of multiple segments. Most noticeable among these is the peristaltic wave of longitudinal segmental contractions by which the larva moves forward or backward. Besides becoming more complex as development proceeds, embryonic movements also acquire a pronounced rhythm. Thus, late embryonic movements occur in bursts, with phases of frequent movement separated by phases of no movement at all; early movements show no such periodicity. These data will serve as a baseline for future studies that address the function of embryonic lethal genes controlling neuronal connectivity and larval behavior. We have analyzed behavioral abnormalities in two embryonic lethal mutations with severe neural defects, tailless (tll), which lacks the protocerebrum, and glial cells missing (gcm), in which glial cells are absent. Our results reveal prominent alterations in embryonic motility for both of these mutations, indicating that the protocerebrum and glial cells play a crucial role in the neural mechanism controlling larval movement in Drosophila. 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Author information

Author/s: Pereanu, Wayne (W); Spindler, Shana (S); Im, Elisabeth (E); Buu, Natalie (N); Hartenstein, Volker (V);

Affiliation: Department of Molecular Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA.

Grants: GM07185 (Agency:NIGMS NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

Journal: Developmental neurobiology (Dev Neurobiol), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-Oct; vol 67 (issue 12) : pp 1669-85

Dates: Created 2007/09/18; Completed 2007/11/21;

PMID: 17577205, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Immunohistochemistry
Larva - physiology
Movement - physiology
Muscle Contraction - physiology
Muscle, Skeletal - embryology; innervation; physiology
Mutation
Neuroglia - metabolism
Repressor Proteins - genetics
Transcription Factors - genetics

Associated Chemicals: DNA-Binding Proteins (0) ; Drosophila Proteins (0) ; GCM protein, Drosophila (0) ; Repressor Proteins (0) ; Tailless protein, Drosophila (0) ; Transcription Factors (0)

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