CELL POLARITY AND CYTOSKELETAL TRANSPORT IN DROSOPHILA

细胞极性或不对称性是动物细胞的普遍特征， 是所有生物体发育和形态发生的基础。为 发育生物学家认识到， 在卵母细胞内的作用，以控制轴极性和细胞的命运 胚胎引起了人们极大的兴趣， 决定因素及其定位机制。单向 微管相关马达、动力蛋白和驱动蛋白的运动， 为细胞器的定位提供了重要的机制 和分子。这种机制可能是极化运输的基础， 靶向卵母细胞和胚胎内的形态发生决定簇。的 这项研究将验证这一假设。我们之前的分析 隐性致死性动力蛋白突变表明，动力蛋白的功能是 在卵子发生过程中需要。此外， 动力蛋白运动到卵母细胞，并在卵母细胞内被基因突变破坏 是卵母细胞特化和分化所必需的。我们 计划的实验将（1）表征细胞学和分子生物学特征， 动力蛋白功能突变的卵母细胞的表型，（2）测试 细胞骨架极性是卵母细胞潜在成分假说 不对称性解释了动力蛋白的积累和定位， 卵母细胞，和（3）扩展我们的遗传和分子分析， 卵子发生中的细胞骨架运输途径。总的来说，这些研究 旨在增强对马达蛋白在以下方面作用的理解： 关节内蝇卵室内胚轴的特化 和细胞分化的产生。

Cell polarity or asymmetry is a universal feature of animal cells that is fundamental to the development and morphogenesis of all organisms. For developmental biologists the recognition that determinants prelocalized within the oocyte act to control axial polarities and cell fates within the embryo has focused great interest on the identity of those determinants and the mechanism of their localization. The unidirectional movements of the microtubule-associated motors, dyneins, and kinesins, provide an important mechanism for the positioning of cellular organelles and molecules. This mechanism may underlie the polarized transport and targeting of morphogenetic determinants within oocytes and embryos. The proposed research will test this hypothesis. Our previous analysis of recessive lethal dynein mutations has indicated that dynein function is required during oogenesis. Moreover, an aymmetric accumulation of the dynein motor to, and within, the oocyte is disrupted by mutations in genes that are required for oocyte specification and differentiation. Our planned experiments will (1) characterize the cytological and molecular phenotypes of oocytes that are mutant for dynein function, (2) test the hypothesis that cytoskeletal polarity is an underlying component of oocyte asymmetry which accounts for dynein accumulation and localization within the oocyte, and (3) to extend our genetic and molecular analyses of the pathways for cytoskeletal transport in oogenesis. Overall, these studies are designed to enhance understanding of the roles of motor proteins in the specification of embryonic axes in the fly egg chamber in articular and the generation of cell olarity in general.