CYTOPLASMIC MYOSIN FUNCTION IN VITRO

描述：果蝇胚胎发育的特征是： 各种各样的细胞运动和细胞形状的变化。 本研究 在分子水平上研究了传统的非肌肉肌球蛋白的作用， （肌球蛋白II）在发育过程中细胞形状的变化。 研究者已 先前的研究表明，肌球蛋白II在胞质分裂中起着重要的作用， 片状形态发生和细胞运动。 这次复兴的基本目标 应用是继续肌球蛋白II的研究，但重点是如何 肌球蛋白功能的调节塑造了胚胎。 三个具体目标 描述了 首先，肌球蛋白调节将通过一个 肌球蛋白轻链功能的遗传分析和定向分析 肌球蛋白重链磷酸化。 第二，肌球蛋白相关蛋白 可能在调节肌球蛋白功能中起作用的蛋白质 通过生物化学和遗传学的方法。 第三，继续调查 肌球蛋白在胚胎发育中的作用 本项目的结果 将定义调节肌球蛋白功能的细胞元件，并确定 超分子结构将肌球蛋白产生的力量传递给 在复杂的细胞重排过程中， 果蝇胚胎。 这一基本水平的研究与 了解胚胎发育过程中异常细胞的运动， 在成年后会导致出生缺陷和癌症。

DESCRIPTION: Development of the Drosophila embryo is characterized by a wide variety of cellular movements and cell shape changes. This research examines at the molecular level the role of conventional nonmuscle myosin (myosin II) in cell shape changes during development. The investigator has previously shown that myosin II plays an essential role in cytokinesis, cell sheet morphogenesis, and cell locomotion. The basic goals of this renewal application is to continue the studies of myosin II but to focus on how regulation of myosin function sculptures the embryo. Three specific aims are described. First, myosin regulation will be investigated through a genetic analysis of myosin light chain function and by a directed analysis of myosin heavy chain phosphorylation. Second, myosin-associated proteins that have a possible role in regulating myosin function will be identified by biochemical and genetic methods. Third, a continuation of investigations into the role of myosin during embryogenesis. Findings from this project will define cellular elements that regulate myosin function and identify the supramolecular structures that transmit myosin-generated forces to the cortex and cytoplasm during the complex cellular rearrangements in the Drosophila embryo. This basic level of research is relevant to the understanding of how abnormal cell movements during embryonic development or later in the adult contribute to birth defects and cancer.