Identification and Functional Characterization of Muscle SatelliteCells 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 role of Muscle stem cells (Gunage et al., 2014) identified in a previous study, in muscle regeneration. We show that muscle stem cells lineal descendants are present in adult muscle as small, unfused cells located superficially and in close proximity to the mature muscle fibers. Normally quiescent cells, following muscle fiber injury become mitotically active, engage in Notch-Delta signaling-dependent proliferative activity and generate lineal descendant populations, which fuse with the injured muscle fiber. In view of their strikingly similar morphological and functional features, we consider these novel cells to be Drosophila muscle satellite cells