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

First published online May 23, 2006
doi: 10.1242/10.1242/dev.02404

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) An erratum has been published Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Related articles in Development 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 Levi, B. P. Articles by Krasnow, M. A. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Levi, B. P. Articles by Krasnow, M. A.

Drosophila talin and integrin genes are required for maintenance of tracheal terminal branches and luminal organization

Department of Biochemistry and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305-5307, USA.

^* Author for correspondence (e-mail: krasnow{at}cmgm.stanford.edu)

Accepted 12 April 2006

Epithelial tubes that compose many organs are typically long lasting, except under specific developmental and physiological conditions when network remodeling occurs. Although there has been progress elucidating mechanisms of tube formation, little is known of the mechanisms that maintain tubes and destabilize them during network remodeling. Here, we describe Drosophila tendrils mutations that compromise maintenance of tracheal terminal branches, fine gauge tubes formed by tracheal terminal cells that ramify on and adhere tightly to tissues in order to supply them with oxygen. Homozygous tendrils terminal cell clones have fewer terminal branches than normal but individual branches contain multiple convoluted lumens. The phenotype arises late in development: terminal branches bud and form lumens normally early in development, but during larval life lumens become convoluted and mature branches degenerate. Their lumens, however, are retained in the remaining branches, resulting in the distinctive multi-lumen phenotype. Mapping and molecular studies demonstrate that tendrils is allelic to rhea, which encodes Drosophila talin, a large cytoskeletal protein that links integrins to the cytoskeleton. Terminal cells mutant for myospheroid, the major Drosophila ß-integrin, or doubly mutant for multiple edematous wings and inflated -integrins, also show the tendrils phenotype, and localization of myospheroid ß-integrin protein is disrupted in tendrils mutant terminal cells. The results provide evidence that integrin-talin adhesion complexes are necessary to maintain tracheal terminal branches and luminal organization. Similar complexes may stabilize other tubular networks and may be targeted for inactivation during network remodeling events.

Key words: Drosophila, Talin, Trachea, Integrin, Tube morphogenesis

Related articles in Development:

Talin(t) for tracheal branching

Development 2006 133: e1206. [Full Text]  

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. Affolter and E. Caussinus Tracheal branching morphogenesis in Drosophila: new insights into cell behaviour and organ architecture Development, June 15, 2008; 135(12): 2055 - 2064. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				A. Khokhar, N. Chen, J.-P. Yuan, Y. Li, G. N. Landis, G. Beaulieu, H. Kaur, and J. Tower Conditional Switches for Extracellular Matrix Patterning in Drosophila melanogaster Genetics, March 1, 2008; 178(3): 1283 - 1293. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. M. Baer, A. Bilstein, and M. Leptin A Clonal Genetic Screen for Mutants Causing Defects in Larval Tracheal Morphogenesis in Drosophila Genetics, August 1, 2007; 176(4): 2279 - 2291. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]