Molecular Genetic Analysis of Muscle Gene and Protein Function
During Drosophila Development We use the fruit fly, Drosophila
melanogaster, to explore gene expression and protein function in
muscle cells. Defects in contractile proteins cause human
cardiac and skeletal muscle disease. Therefore, it is useful to
pursue an understanding of contractile protein function in an
organism that is readily manipulated by genetic and transgenic
means. Our integrative approach allows us to study muscle from
the molecular level (using biochemical and biophysical assays),
through the cellular level (using microscopy and fiber
mechanical assays) to the level of whole organism muscle
function. The molecular motor of muscle is myosin heavy chain, a
protein that interacts with actin to cause muscle contraction.
We determined that Drosophila possesses a single muscle myosin
heavy chain gene, and that multiple forms of the myosin protein
are produced by the process of alternative RNA splicing.
Specific regions of the myosin RNA