During development, adhesion between distinct cell types is crucial for tissue assembly. Now, on p.785, Eliezer Gilsohn and Talila Volk show that the novel tendon-derived protein Slowdown (Slow) promotes muscle integrity in Drosophila embryos by ensuring that myotendinous junctions (MTJs) form correctly between muscle and tendon cells to `glue' them together. MTJs, a type of hemi-adherens junction, consist mainly of muscle-specific integrin receptors and their tendon-derived extracellular matrix ligand thrombospondin. The researchers identified Slow in a microarray screen for target genes of the tendon-specific transcription factor Stripe. They show that muscle and/or tendons rupture upon muscle contraction in slow mutant larvae and that slow mutant flies are unable to fly. These defects, they report, are the result of improper assembly of the embryonic MTJ. Other experiments indicate that Slow normally forms a complex with thrombospondin that can alter the morphology and directionality of muscle ends. Thus, Gilsohn and Volk conclude, Slow promotes muscle integrity by modulating integrin-mediated adhesion at MTJs.
Slowdown in muscle integrity
Slowdown in muscle integrity. Development 1 March 2010; 137 (5): e504. doi:
Download citation file:
Advertisement
Cited by
Call for papers: Uncovering Developmental Diversity
Development invites you to submit your latest research to our upcoming special issue: Uncovering Developmental Diversity. This issue will be coordinated by our academic Editor Cassandra Extavour (Harvard University, USA) alongside two Guest Editors: Liam Dolan (Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology, Austria) and Karen Sears (University of California Los Angeles, USA).
Choose Development in 2024
In this Editorial, Development Editor-in-Chief James Briscoe and Executive Editor Katherine Brown explain how you support your community by publishing in Development and how the journal champions serious science, community connections and progressive publishing.
Journal Meeting: From Stem Cells to Human Development
Register now for the 2024 Development Journal Meeting From Stem Cells to Human Development. Early-bird registration deadline: 3 May. Abstract submission deadline: 21 June.
Pluripotency of a founding field: rebranding developmental biology
This collaborative Perspective, the result of a workshop held in 2023, proposes a set of community actions to increase the visibility of the developmental biology field. The authors make recommendations for new funding streams, frameworks for collaborations and mechanisms by which members of the community can promote themselves and their research.
Read & Publish Open Access publishing: what authors say
We have had great feedback from authors who have benefitted from our Read & Publish agreement with their institution and have been able to publish Open Access with us without paying an APC. Read what they had to say.