Regulation of actin dynamics by drosophila drak kinase

动物的复杂形态起源于胚胎发育过程中简单的细胞球和细胞片。用于塑造发育中的组织的一个主要机制是以一种受控和协调的方式改变组织内细胞的形状。单个细胞的形状是由各种丝状蛋白质组成的支架控制的，这些蛋白质在细胞内充当一种框架。这种所谓的细胞骨架的组织是动态的，例如，允许细胞根据适当的发育信号伸展、变平或移动。我们的研究兴趣之一是了解在发育过程中如何控制细胞骨架动力学。我们使用果蝇（Drosophila melanogaster）作为遗传上可处理的模式生物来研究这些过程。我们一直在描述一种叫做Drak的新蛋白质，它是苍蝇胚胎中多种组织正确形成所必需的。我们已经证明，这种需求是由于它参与了肌球蛋白II的调节，肌球蛋白II是细胞骨架的主要蛋白质成分，与其丝状结合伙伴肌动蛋白一起在细胞内产生拉力或张力。我们目前的研究有两个主要目标。首先是通过确定Drak如何与已知的控制Myosin II活性的其他蛋白质相互作用，在分子水平上表征Drak如何调节Myosin II。其次，通过描述缺乏Drak的突变动物的组织形状如何受到影响，了解这种调节如何有助于在发育过程中形成组织。总之，这些研究将为Drak在细胞骨架调节中的作用提供清晰的机制理解，以及这对于动物组织中复杂形式的适当产生的重要性。

The complex forms of animals originate from simple balls and sheets of cells during embryonic development. One major mechanism that is used to sculpt developing tissues is to alter the shapes of cells within the tissues in a controlled and coordinated way. The shapes of individual cells are governed by scaffolds made up of various filamentous proteins, which serve a a sort of frame within the cell. The organization of this so-called cytoskeleton is dynamic, allowing cell to, for instance, stretch, flatten or move in response to the appropriate developmental signal. One of our research interests is in understanding how cytoskeleton dynamics are controlled during development. We use the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, as a genetically tractable model organism for studying these processes. We have been characterizing a novel protein called Drak that is required for proper formation of multiple tissues in the fly embryo. We have shown that requirement is due to its involvement in the regulation of Myosin II, a major protein component of the cytoskeleton that together with its filamentous binding partner Actin generates pulling forces, or tension, within cells. Our current research has two major goals. The first is to characterize at a molecular level how Drak regulates Myosin II, by determining how it interacts with other proteins known to control Myosin II activity. The second is to understand how this regulation contributes to shaping tissues during development, by characterizing how tissue shape is affected in mutant animals lacking Drak. Together, these studies will provide a clear mechanistic understanding of the role of Drak in cytoskeleton regulation, and the importance of this for proper generation of complex forms in animal tissues.