title: Localization and requirement for Myosin II at the dorsal-ventral compartment boundary of the Drosophila wing.
abstract: As organisms develop, their tissues can become separated into distinct cell populations through the establishment of compartment boundaries. Compartment boundaries have been discovered in a wide variety of tissues, but in many cases the molecular mechanisms that separate cells remain poorly understood. In the Drosophila wing, a stripe of Notch activation maintains the dorsal-ventral compartment boundary, through a process that depends on the actin cytoskeleton. Here, we show that the dorsal-ventral boundary exhibits a distinct accumulation of Myosin II, and that this accumulation is regulated downstream of Notch signaling. Conversely, the dorsal-ventral boundary is depleted for the Par-3 homologue Bazooka. We further show that mutations in the Myosin heavy chain subunit encoded by zipper can impair dorsal-ventral compartmentalization without affecting anterior-posterior compartmentalization. These observations identify a distinct accumulation and requirement for Myosin activity in dorsal-ventral compartmentalization, and suggest a novel mechanism in which contractile tension along an F-actin cable at the compartment boundary contributes to compartmentalization.
authors.affiliation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Waksman Institute, and Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Rutgers The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA.
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Major
authors.forename: Kenneth D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Irvine
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004330:Drosophila / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics*; D047908:Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins / Q000032:analysis; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics*; D009154:Mutation; D018995:Myosin Heavy Chains / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics*; D024462:Myosin Type II / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism; D051880:Receptors, Notch / Q000378:metabolism*; D014921:Wings, Animal / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000254:growth & development
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D047908:Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D051880:Receptors, Notch; C097862:Zip protein, Drosophila; C400774:baz protein, Drosophila; D024462:Myosin Type II; D018995:Myosin Heavy Chains