Staudt, N., Molitor, A., Somogyi, K., Mata, J., Curado, S., Eulenberg, K., Meise, M., Siegmund, T., Haeder, T., Hilfiker, A., Broenner, G., Ephrussi, A., Rorth, P., Cohen, S.M., Fellert, S., Chung, H.R., Piepenburg, O., Schäfer, U., Jäckle, H., Vorbrüggen, G. (2005). Gain-of-function screen for genes that affect Drosophila muscle pattern formation.  PLoS Genet. 1(4): e55.

FBrf0191391

Research paper

This article reports the production of an EP-element insertion library with more than 3,700 unique target sites within the Drosophila melanogaster genome and its use to systematically identify genes that affect embryonic muscle pattern formation. We designed a UAS/GAL4 system to drive GAL4-responsive expression of the EP-targeted genes in developing apodeme cells to which migrating myotubes finally attach and in an intrasegmental pattern of cells that serve myotubes as a migration substrate on their way towards the apodemes. The results suggest that misexpression of more than 1.5% of the Drosophila genes can interfere with proper myotube guidance and/or muscle attachment. In addition to factors already known to participate in these processes, we identified a number of enzymes that participate in the synthesis or modification of protein carbohydrate side chains and in Ubiquitin modifications and/or the Ubiquitin-dependent degradation of proteins, suggesting that these processes are relevant for muscle pattern formation.

PMC1270011 (PMC) (EuropePMC)