Identification and functional characterization of muscle satellite cells in Drosophila
Abstract
Work on genetic model systems such as Drosophila and mouse has shown that the fundamental mechanisms of myogenesis are remarkably similar in vertebrates and invertebrates. Strikingly however, satellite cells, the adult muscle stem cells that are essential for the regeneration of damaged muscles in vertebrates, have not been reported in invertebrates. In this study we show that lineal descendants of muscle stem cells are present in adult muscle of Drosophila as small, unfused cells observed at the surface and in close proximity to the mature muscle fibers. Normally quiescent, following muscle fiber injury, we show that these cells express Zfh1 and engage in Notch-Delta dependent proliferative activity and generate lineal descendant populations, which fuse with the injured muscle fiber. In view of strikingly similar morphological and functional features, we consider these novel cells to be the Drosophila equivalent of vertebrate muscle satellite cells.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology (JC Bose Fellowship)
- K VijayRaghavan
Science and Engineering Research Board
- Dhananjay Chaturvedi
Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology
- Rajesh D Gunage
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Reviewing Editor
- Fiona M Watt, King's College London, United Kingdom
Version history
- Received: July 4, 2017
- Accepted: October 24, 2017
- Accepted Manuscript published: October 26, 2017 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: November 10, 2017 (version 2)
- Version of Record updated: June 21, 2018 (version 3)
Copyright
© 2017, Chaturvedi et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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