Scholars@Duke
Daniel P. Kiehart

Daniel P. Kiehart

Professor of Biology
Biology
dkiehart@duke.edu
Box 90338, Dept. Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708-1000
4330 French Family Science Cen, Science Drive, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708-0338
Office hours

Selected Publications

Notochord segmentation in zebrafish controlled by iterative mechanical signaling.

Journal Article Dev Cell · July 22, 2024 In bony fishes, patterning of the vertebral column, or spine, is guided by a metameric blueprint established in the notochord sheath. Notochord segmentation begins days after somitogenesis concludes and can occur in its absence. However, somite patterning ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Minimal vertex model explains how the amnioserosa avoids fluidization during Drosophila dorsal closure.

Journal Article ArXiv · December 20, 2023 Dorsal closure is a process that occurs during embryogenesis of Drosophila melanogaster. During dorsal closure, the amnioserosa (AS), a one-cell thick epithelial tissue that fills the dorsal opening, shrinks as the lateral epidermis sheets converge and eve ... Link to item Cite

Wound repair in sea urchin larvae involves pigment cells and blastocoelar cells.

Journal Article Developmental biology · November 2022 Sea urchin larvae spend weeks to months feeding on plankton prior to metamorphosis. When handled in the laboratory they are easily injured, suggesting that in the plankton they are injured with some frequency. Fortunately, larval wounds are repaired throug ... Full text Cite

DeepProjection: specific and robust projection of curved 2D tissue sheets from 3D microscopy using deep learning.

Journal Article Development · November 1, 2022 The efficient extraction of image data from curved tissue sheets embedded in volumetric imaging data remains a serious and unsolved problem in quantitative studies of embryogenesis. Here, we present DeepProjection (DP), a trainable projection algorithm bas ... Full text Link to item Cite

Superresolution microscopy reveals actomyosin dynamics in medioapical arrays.

Journal Article Molecular biology of the cell · September 2022 Arrays of actin filaments (F-actin) near the apical surface of epithelial cells (medioapical arrays) contribute to apical constriction and morphogenesis throughout phylogeny. Here, superresolution approaches (grazing incidence structured illumination, GI-S ... Full text Cite

Mutations in Drosophila crinkled/Myosin VIIA disrupt denticle morphogenesis.

Journal Article Developmental biology · February 2021 Featured Publication Actin filament crosslinking, bundling and molecular motor proteins are necessary for the assembly of epithelial projections such as microvilli, stereocilia, hairs, and bristles. Mutations in such proteins cause defects in the shape, structure, and function ... Full text Cite

Identifying Key Genetic Regions for Cell Sheet Morphogenesis on Chromosome 2L Using a Drosophila Deficiency Screen in Dorsal Closure.

Journal Article G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · November 2020 Cell sheet morphogenesis is essential for metazoan development and homeostasis of animal form - it contributes to developmental milestones including gastrulation, neural tube closure, heart and palate formation and to tissue maintenance during wound healin ... Full text Cite

Contractile protein biochemistry in the Pollard Lab in Baltimore.

Journal Article Biophysical reviews · December 2018 We describe our search for the molecular mechanisms of cell motility with personal recollections of bucket biochemistry in Tom Pollards Lab at the Johns Hopkins, circa 1980. ... Full text Cite

Visualizing Intracellular Organelle and Cytoskeletal Interactions at Nanoscale Resolution on Millisecond Timescales.

Journal Article Cell · November 2018 In eukaryotic cells, organelles and the cytoskeleton undergo highly dynamic yet organized interactions capable of orchestrating complex cellular functions. Visualizing these interactions requires noninvasive, long-duration imaging of the intracellular envi ... Full text Cite

Mathematical models of dorsal closure.

Journal Article Progress in biophysics and molecular biology · September 2018 Dorsal closure is a model cell sheet movement that occurs midway through Drosophila embryogenesis. A dorsal hole, filled with amnioserosa, closes through the dorsalward elongation of lateral epidermal cell sheets. Closure requires contributions from 5 dist ... Full text Cite

Identifying Genetic Players in Cell Sheet Morphogenesis Using a Drosophila Deficiency Screen for Genes on Chromosome 2R Involved in Dorsal Closure.

Journal Article G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · July 2018 Cell sheet morphogenesis characterizes key developmental transitions and homeostasis, in vertebrates and throughout phylogeny, including gastrulation, neural tube formation and wound healing. Dorsal closure, a process during Drosophila embryogenesis ... Full text Cite

Unified biophysical mechanism for cell-shape oscillations and cell ingression.

Journal Article Physical review. E · June 2018 We describe a mechanochemical and percolation cascade that augments myosin's regulatory network to tune cytoskeletal forces. Actomyosin forces collectively generate cytoskeletal forces during cell oscillations and ingression, which we quantify by elastic p ... Full text Cite

Cell Sheet Morphogenesis: Dorsal Closure in Drosophila melanogaster as a Model System.

Journal Article Annual review of cell and developmental biology · October 2017 Dorsal closure is a key process during Drosophila morphogenesis that models cell sheet movements in chordates, including neural tube closure, palate formation, and wound healing. Closure occurs midway through embryogenesis and entails circumferential elong ... Full text Cite

Tension Creates an Endoreplication Wavefront that Leads Regeneration of Epicardial Tissue.

Journal Article Dev Cell · September 25, 2017 Mechanisms that control cell-cycle dynamics during tissue regeneration require elucidation. Here we find in zebrafish that regeneration of the epicardium, the mesothelial covering of the heart, is mediated by two phenotypically distinct epicardial cell sub ... Full text Link to item Cite

Quantifying dorsal closure in three dimensions.

Journal Article Molecular biology of the cell · December 2016 Dorsal closure is an essential stage of Drosophila embryogenesis and is a powerful model system for morphogenesis, wound healing, and tissue biomechanics. During closure, two flanks of lateral epidermis close an eye-shaped dorsal opening that is filled wit ... Full text Cite

MRCK-1 Drives Apical Constriction in C. elegans by Linking Developmental Patterning to Force Generation.

Journal Article Current biology : CB · August 2016 Apical constriction is a change in cell shape that drives key morphogenetic events including gastrulation and neural tube formation. Apical force-producing actomyosin networks drive apical constriction by contracting while connected to cell-cell junctions. ... Full text Cite

Remodeling Tissue Interfaces and the Thermodynamics of Zipping during Dorsal Closure in Drosophila.

Journal Article Biophysical journal · December 2015 Dorsal closure during Drosophila embryogenesis is an important model system for investigating the biomechanics of morphogenesis. During closure, two flanks of lateral epidermis (with actomyosin-rich purse strings near each leading edge) close an eye-shaped ... Full text Cite

Moving Inward: Establishing the Mammalian Inner Cell Mass.

Journal Article Developmental cell · August 2015 Early in mammalian development, a few cells move to the center of the embryo to establish the inner cell mass-the early precursor of the fetus. In this issue of Developmental Cell, Samarage et al. (2015) shed light on how these cells move inward. ... Full text Cite

Epithelial morphogenesis: apoptotic forces drive cell shape changes.

Journal Article Developmental cell · March 2015 Studying how cells produce and transmit forces that drive morphogenesis is critical to understanding organismal development. A new paper by Monier et al. (2015) identifies an apicobasal actomyosin cable that characterizes apoptotic cells and contributes fo ... Full text Cite

Complete canthi removal reveals that forces from the amnioserosa alone are sufficient to drive dorsal closure in Drosophila.

Journal Article Molecular biology of the cell · November 2014 Drosophila's dorsal closure provides an excellent model system with which to analyze biomechanical processes during morphogenesis. During native closure, the amnioserosa, flanked by two lateral epidermal sheets, forms an eye-shaped opening with canthi at e ... Full text Cite

Lattice light-sheet microscopy: imaging molecules to embryos at high spatiotemporal resolution.

Journal Article Science (New York, N.Y.) · October 2014 Although fluorescence microscopy provides a crucial window into the physiology of living specimens, many biological processes are too fragile, are too small, or occur too rapidly to see clearly with existing tools. We crafted ultrathin light sheets from tw ... Full text Cite

Ion channels contribute to the regulation of cell sheet forces during Drosophila dorsal closure.

Journal Article Development (Cambridge, England) · January 2014 We demonstrate that ion channels contribute to the regulation of dorsal closure in Drosophila, a model system for cell sheet morphogenesis. We find that Ca(2+) is sufficient to cause cell contraction in dorsal closure tissues, as UV-mediated release of cag ... Full text Cite

Triggering a cell shape change by exploiting preexisting actomyosin contractions.

Journal Article Science (New York, N.Y.) · March 2012 Apical constriction changes cell shapes, driving critical morphogenetic events, including gastrulation in diverse organisms and neural tube closure in vertebrates. Apical constriction is thought to be triggered by contraction of apical actomyosin networks. ... Full text Cite

Cell ingression and apical shape oscillations during dorsal closure in Drosophila.

Journal Article Biophysical journal · March 2012 Programmed patterns of gene expression, cell-cell signaling, and cellular forces cause morphogenic movements during dorsal closure. We investigated the apical cell-shape changes that characterize amnioserosa cells during dorsal closure in Drosophila embryo ... Full text Cite

Division of labor: subsets of dorsal-appendage-forming cells control the shape of the entire tube.

Journal Article Developmental Biology · October 2010 The function of an organ relies on its form, which in turn depends on the individual shapes of the cells that create it and the interactions between them. Despite remarkable progress in the field of developmental biology, how cells collaborate to make a ti ... Full text Cite

Nonmuscle myosin II is required for cell proliferation, cell sheet adhesion and wing hair morphology during wing morphogenesis.

Journal Article Developmental biology · September 2010 Metazoan development involves a myriad of dynamic cellular processes that require cytoskeletal function. Nonmuscle myosin II plays essential roles in embryonic development; however, knowledge of its role in post-embryonic development, even in model organis ... Full text Cite

Drosophila morphogenesis: tissue force laws and the modeling of dorsal closure.

Journal Article HFSP journal · December 2009 Dorsal closure, a stage of Drosophila development, is a model system for cell sheet morphogenesis and wound healing. During closure, two flanks of epidermal tissue progressively advance to reduce the area of the eye-shaped opening in the dorsal surface, wh ... Full text Cite

Apoptotic force and tissue dynamics during Drosophila embryogenesis.

Journal Article Science (New York, N.Y.) · September 2008 Understanding cell morphogenesis during metazoan development requires knowledge of how cells and the extracellular matrix produce and respond to forces. We investigated how apoptosis, which remodels tissue by eliminating supernumerary cells, also contribut ... Full text Cite

Actomyosin purse strings: renewable resources that make morphogenesis robust and resilient.

Journal Article HFSP journal · August 2008 Dorsal closure in Drosophila is a model system for cell sheet morphogenesis and wound healing. During closure two sheets of lateral epidermis move dorsally to close over the amnioserosa and form a continuous epidermis. Forces from the amnioserosa and actom ... Full text Cite

Myosin VIIA, important for human auditory function, is necessary for Drosophila auditory organ development.

Journal Article PloS one · May 2008 BackgroundMyosin VIIA (MyoVIIA) is an unconventional myosin necessary for vertebrate audition [1]-[5]. Human auditory transduction occurs in sensory hair cells with a staircase-like arrangement of apical protrusions called stereocilia. In these ha ... Full text Open Access Cite

Emergent properties during dorsal closure in Drosophila morphogenesis.

Journal Article Physical biology · April 2008 Dorsal closure is an essential stage of Drosophila development that is a model system for research in morphogenesis and biological physics. Dorsal closure involves an orchestrated interplay between gene expression and cell activities that produce shape cha ... Full text Cite

Emergent properties during dorsal closure in Drosophila morphogenesis.

Journal Article Physical Biology · 2008 Dorsal closure is an essential stage of Drosophila development that is a model system for research in morphogenesis and biological physics. Dorsal closure involves an orchestrated interplay between gene expression and cell activities that produce shape cha ... Cite

An MYH9 human disease model in flies: site-directed mutagenesis of the Drosophila non-muscle myosin II results in hypomorphic alleles with dominant character.

Journal Article Human molecular genetics · December 2007 We investigated whether or not human disease-causing, amino acid substitutions in MYH9 could cause dominant phenotypes when introduced into the sole non-muscle myosin II heavy chain in Drosophila melanogaster (zip/MyoII). We characterized in vivo the effec ... Full text Cite

Upregulation of forces and morphogenic asymmetries in dorsal closure during Drosophila development.

Journal Article Biophysical journal · April 2007 Tissue dynamics during dorsal closure, a stage of Drosophila development, provide a model system for cell sheet morphogenesis and wound healing. Dorsal closure is characterized by complex cell sheet movements, driven by multiple tissue specific forces, whi ... Full text Cite

Cell structure and dynamics

Journal Article Current Opinion in Cell Biology · February 1, 2007 Full text Cite

Ultraviolet Laser Microbeam for Dissection of Drosophila Embryos

Journal Article · December 1, 2006 This chapter describes the use of ultraviolet (UV) laser microbeam interrogation strategies, combined with confocal microscopy, to investigate the developmental process of dorsal closure. Drosophila embryos that carry GFP-fusion transgenes are mounted to a ... Full text Cite

Native nonmuscle myosin II stability and light chain binding in Drosophila melanogaster.

Journal Article Cell motility and the cytoskeleton · October 2006 Native nonmuscle myosin IIs play essential roles in cellular and developmental processes throughout phylogeny. Individual motor molecules consist of a heterohexameric complex of three polypeptides which, when properly assembled, are capable of force genera ... Full text Cite

Dimerized Drosophila myosin VIIa: a processive motor.

Journal Article Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · April 2006 The molecular mechanism of processive movement of single myosin molecules from classes V and VI along their actin tracks has recently attracted extraordinary attention. Another member of the myosin superfamily, myosin VII, plays vital roles in the sensory ... Full text Cite

JNK signaling coordinates integrin and actin functions during Drosophila embryogenesis.

Journal Article Developmental dynamics : an official publication of the American Association of Anatomists · February 2006 Epithelial movements are key morphogenetic events in animal development. They are driven by multiple mechanisms, including signal-dependent changes in cytoskeletal organization and in cell adhesion. Such processes must be controlled precisely and coordinat ... Full text Cite

Nonmuscle myosin II generates forces that transmit tension and drive contraction in multiple tissues during dorsal closure.

Journal Article Current biology : CB · December 2005 BackgroundThe morphogenic movements that characterize embryonic development require the precise temporal and spatial control of cell-shape changes. Drosophila dorsal closure is a well-established model for epithelial sheet morphogenesis, and mutat ... Full text Cite

Ultraviolet laser microbeam for dissection of drosophila embryos

Chapter · November 16, 2005 This chapter describes the use of ultraviolet (UV) laser microbeam interrogation strategies, combined with confocal microscopy, to investigate the developmental process of dorsal closure. Drosophila embryos that carry GFP-fusion transgenes are mounted to a ... Full text Cite

Myosin VIIA defects, which underlie the Usher 1B syndrome in humans, lead to deafness in Drosophila.

Journal Article Current biology : CB · May 2005 In vertebrates, auditory and vestibular transduction occurs on apical projections (stereocilia) of specialized cells (hair cells). Mutations in myosin VIIA (myoVIIA), an unconventional myosin, lead to deafness and balance anomalies in humans, mice, and zeb ... Full text Cite

Rod mutations associated with MYH9-related disorders disrupt nonmuscle myosin-IIA assembly.

Journal Article Blood · January 1, 2005 MYH9-related disorders are autosomal dominant syndromes, variably affecting platelet formation, hearing, and kidney function, and result from mutations in the human nonmuscle myosin-IIA heavy chain gene. To understand the mechanisms by which mutations in t ... Full text Link to item Cite

Drosophila crinkled, mutations of which disrupt morphogenesis and cause lethality, encodes fly myosin VIIA.

Journal Article Genetics · November 2004 Myosin VIIs provide motor function for a wide range of eukaryotic processes. We demonstrate that mutations in crinkled (ck) disrupt the Drosophila myosin VIIA heavy chain. The ck/myoVIIA protein is present at a low level throughout fly development and at t ... Full text Cite

bullwinkle is required for epithelial morphogenesis during Drosophila oogenesis.

Journal Article Developmental Biology, USA · March 2004 Many organs, such as the liver, neural tube, and lung, form by the precise remodeling of flat epithelial sheets into tubes. Here we investigate epithelial tubulogenesis in Drosophila melanogaster by examining the development of the dorsal respiratory appen ... Link to item Cite

Myosins motor Miranda.

Journal Article Molecular cell · December 2003 New evidence shows that myosin motors drive the spatial segregation of cell fate determinants during asymmetric cell division. How they do so remains a mystery. ... Full text Cite

Genetic interactions between the RhoA and Stubble-stubbloid loci suggest a role for a type II transmembrane serine protease in intracellular signaling during Drosophila imaginal disc morphogenesis.

Journal Article Genetics · November 2003 The Drosophila RhoA (Rho1) GTPase is essential for postembryonic morphogenesis of leg and wing imaginal discs. Mutations in RhoA enhance leg and wing defects associated with mutations in zipper, the gene encoding the heavy chain of nonmuscle myosin II. We ... Full text Cite

Free-electron-laser-based biophysical and biomedical instrumentation

Journal Article Review of Scientific Instruments · July 1, 2003 A survey of biophysical and biomedical applications of free-electron lasers (FEL) was discussed. It was found that the midinfrared SCA FEL and UV FELs based on storage rings were useful for one- and two-color spectroscopic investigations of biophysical pro ... Full text Cite

Forces for morphogenesis investigated with laser microsurgery and quantitative modeling.

Journal Article Science (New York, N.Y.) · April 2003 We investigated the forces that connect the genetic program of development to morphogenesis in Drosophila. We focused on dorsal closure, a powerful model system for development and wound healing. We found that the bulk of progress toward closure is driven ... Full text Cite

FEL-based biophysical and biomedical instrumentation

Journal Article Invited paper, Review of Scientific Instruments · 2003 Cite

Actin dynamics: the arp2/3 complex branches out.

Journal Article Current biology : CB · August 2002 Several new findings point to novel functions for the Arp2/3 complex. The dendritic nucleation model that has been proposed to describe cell extension for locomotion may also be applicable to other actin-based processes. ... Full text Cite

Drosophila RhoA regulates the cytoskeleton and cell-cell adhesion in the developing epidermis.

Journal Article Development (Cambridge, England) · July 2002 The small GTPase Rho is a molecular switch that is best known for its role in regulating the actomyosin cytoskeleton. We have investigated its role in the developing Drosophila embryonic epidermis during the process of dorsal closure. By expressing the dom ... Full text Cite

Dual labeling of the fibronectin matrix and actin cytoskeleton with green fluorescent protein variants.

Journal Article J Cell Sci · March 15, 2002 We have prepared 3T3 cells doubly labeled to visualize simultaneously the extracellular fibronectin (FN) matrix and intracellular actin cytoskeleton in living cell cultures. We used FN-yellow fluorescent protein (FN-yfp) for the FN matrix, and the actin-bi ... Full text Link to item Cite

zipper Nonmuscle myosin-II functions downstream of PS2 integrin in Drosophila myogenesis and is necessary for myofibril formation.

Journal Article Developmental biology · November 2001 Nonmuscle myosin-II is a key motor protein that drives cell shape change and cell movement. Here, we analyze the function of nonmuscle myosin-II during Drosophila embryonic myogenesis. We find that nonmuscle myosin-II and the adhesion molecule, PS2 integri ... Full text Cite

Role of myosin-II phosphorylation in V12Cdc42-mediated disruption of Drosophila cellularization.

Journal Article European Journal of Cell Biology · March 2001 Microinjection of constitutively active Cdc42 (V12Cdc42) disrupts the actomyosin cytoskeleton during cellularization (Crawford et al., Dev. Biol., 204, 151-164 (1998)). The p21-activated kinase (PAK) family of Ser/Thr kinases are effectors of GTP-bound for ... Cite

Protein kinase C phosphorylates nonmuscle myosin-II heavy chain from Drosophila but regulation of myosin function by this enzyme is not required for viability in flies.

Journal Article Biochemistry · March 2001 Conventional myosins (myosin-IIs) generate forces for cell shape change and cell motility. Myosin heavy chain phosphorylation regulates myosin function in simple eukaryotes and may also be important in metazoans. To investigate this regulation in a complex ... Full text Cite

Drosophila stretchin-MLCK is a novel member of the Titin/Myosin light chain kinase family.

Journal Article J Mol Biol · July 21, 2000 Members of the titin/myosin light chain kinase family play an essential role in the organization of the actin/myosin cytoskeleton, especially in sarcomere assembly and function. In Drosophila melanogaster, projectin is so far the only member of this family ... Full text Link to item Cite

Genetic analysis demonstrates a direct link between rho signaling and nonmuscle myosin function during Drosophila morphogenesis.

Journal Article Genetics · July 2000 A dynamic actomyosin cytoskeleton drives many morphogenetic events. Conventional nonmuscle myosin-II (myosin) is a key chemomechanical motor that drives contraction of the actin cytoskeleton. We have explored the regulation of myosin activity by performing ... Full text Cite

Multiple forces contribute to cell sheet morphogenesis for dorsal closure in Drosophila.

Journal Article The Journal of cell biology · April 2000 The molecular and cellular bases of cell shape change and movement during morphogenesis and wound healing are of intense interest and are only beginning to be understood. Here, we investigate the forces responsible for morphogenesis during dorsal closure w ... Full text Cite

Wound healing: The power of the purse string.

Journal Article Current biology : CB · August 1999 Recently, Xenopus oocytes have been shown to repair wounds using a contractile system composed of actin and myosin-II. The work underscores the importance of actin-based myosin-II contractility in cellular and supracellular 'purse strings' that function in ... Full text Cite

Biology in pictures: From one cell to many.

Journal Article Current biology : CB · June 1999 Cite

Dynamics and elasticity of the fibronectin matrix in living cell culture visualized by fibronectin-green fluorescent protein.

Journal Article Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · March 2, 1999 Fibronectin (FN) forms the primitive fibrillar matrix in both embryos and healing wounds. To study the matrix in living cell cultures, we have constructed a cell line that secretes FN molecules chimeric with green fluorescent protein. These FN-green fluore ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cellularization in Drosophila melanogaster is disrupted by the inhibition of rho activity and the activation of Cdc42 function.

Journal Article Developmental Biology, USA · December 1998 Regulation of cytoskeletal dynamics is essential for cell shape change and morphogenesis. Drosophila melanogaster embryos offer a well-defined system for observing alterations in the cytoskeleton during the process of cellularization, a specialized form of ... Cite

Volume changes induced by osmotic stress in freshly isolated rat hippocampal neurons.

Journal Article Pflugers Arch · November 1998 The degree to which osmotic stress changes the volume of mammalian central neurons has not previously been determined. We isolated CA1 pyramidal cells and measured cell volume in four different ways. Extracellular osmolarity (pio) was lowered by omitting v ... Full text Link to item Cite

Drosophila betaHeavy-spectrin is essential for development and contributes to specific cell fates in the eye.

Journal Article Development (Cambridge, England) · June 1998 The spectrin membrane skeleton is a ubiquitous cytoskeletal structure with several cellular roles, including the maintenance of cell integrity, determination of cell shape and as a contributor to cell polarity. We have isolated mutations in the gene encodi ... Full text Cite

Second-site noncomplementation identifies genomic regions required for Drosophila nonmuscle myosin function during morphogenesis.

Journal Article Genetics · April 1998 Drosophila is an ideal metazoan model system for analyzing the role of nonmuscle myosin-II (henceforth, myosin) during development. In Drosophila, myosin function is required for cytokinesis and morphogenesis driven by cell migration and/or cell shape chan ... Full text Cite

Intragenic duplication and divergence in the spectrin superfamily of proteins.

Journal Article Molecular Biology and Evolution, USA · December 1997 Many structural, signaling, and adhesion molecules contain tandemly repeated amino acid motifs. The alpha-actinin/spectrin/dystrophin superfamily of F-actin-crosslinking proteins contains an array of triple alpha-helical motifs (spectrin repeats). We prese ... Cite

GFP-moesin illuminates actin cytoskeleton dynamics in living tissue and demonstrates cell shape changes during morphogenesis in Drosophila.

Journal Article Developmental biology · November 1997 Moesin, ezrin, and radixin (MER) are components of the cortical actin cytoskeleton and membrane processes such as filopodia and microvilli. Their C-terminal tails contain an extended region that is predicted to be helical, an actin binding domain, and a re ... Full text Cite

The role of HOM-C genes in segmental transformations: reexamination of the Drosophila Sex combs reduced embryonic phenotype.

Journal Article Developmental biology · November 1996 Homeotic genes in the Antennapedia Complex of Drosophila specify identity of the posterior head segments; the labial segment requires Sex combs reduced (Scr) for proper development, Deformed (Dfd) specifies maxillary and mandibular identity, and labial is ... Full text Cite

Septins may form a ubiquitous family of cytoskeletal filaments.

Journal Article The Journal of cell biology · September 1996 Full text Cite

Drosophila nonmuscle myosin II has multiple essential roles in imaginal disc and egg chamber morphogenesis.

Journal Article Development (Cambridge, England) · May 1996 Morphogenesis is characterized by orchestrated changes in the shape and position of individual cells. Many of these movements are thought to be powered by motor proteins. However, in metazoans, it is often difficult to match specific motors with the moveme ... Full text Cite

Molecular organization and alternative splicing in zipper, the gene that encodes the Drosophila non-muscle myosin II heavy chain.

Journal Article Journal of molecular biology · January 1996 Genomic sequence of the entire zipper gene, that encodes non-muscle myosin II heavy chain (MHC) in Drosophila melanogaster, reveals a new, differentially spliced exon in this essential locus and identifies a molecular lesion that is responsible for a sever ... Full text Cite

Essential light chain of Drosophila nonmuscle myosin II.

Journal Article Journal of muscle research and cell motility · October 1995 We have cloned and sequenced a cDNA encoding the essential (alkaline) light chain of nonmuscle myosin from Drosophila melanogaster. The protein predicted from the cDNA matches partial amino acid sequence derived from essential light chain protein that copu ... Full text Cite

Fly division.

Journal Article The Journal of cell biology · October 1995 Full text Cite

Beta heavy-spectrin has a restricted tissue and subcellular distribution during Drosophila embryogenesis.

Journal Article Development (Cambridge, England) · July 1994 The components of the membrane skeleton play an important role in maintaining membrane structure during the dynamic changes in cell shape that characterize development. beta Heavy-spectrin is a unique beta-spectrin from Drosophila melanogaster that is clos ... Full text Cite

Identification of Drosophila cytoskeletal proteins by induction of abnormal cell shape in fission yeast.

Journal Article Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · May 1994 To clone metazoan genes encoding regulators of cell shape, we have developed a functional assay for proteins that affect the morphology of a simple organism, the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. A Drosophila melanogaster cDNA library was constructe ... Full text Cite

βHavy-spectrin has a restricted tissue and subcellular distribution during Drosophila embryogenesis

Journal Article Development · 1994 The components of the membrane skeleton play an important role in maintaining membrane structure during the dynamic changes in cell shape that characterize development, βHeavy-spectrin is a unique β-spectrin from Drosophila melanogaster that is closer in s ... Cite

βHavy-spectrin has a restricted tissue and subcellular distribution during Drosophila embryogenesis

Journal Article Development · January 1, 1994 The components of the membrane skeleton play an important role in maintaining membrane structure during the dynamic changes in cell shape that characterize development, βHeavy-spectrin is a unique β-spectrin from Drosophila melanogaster that is closer in s ... Cite

Morphogenesis in Drosophila requires nonmuscle myosin heavy chain function.

Journal Article Genes & development · January 1993 We provide the first link between a known molecular motor and morphogenesis, the fundamental process of cell shape changes and movements that characterizes development throughout phylogeny. By reverse genetics, we generate mutations in the Drosophila conve ... Full text Cite

The regulatory light chain of nonmuscle myosin is encoded by spaghetti-squash, a gene required for cytokinesis in Drosophila.

Journal Article Cell · June 1991 Two independent approaches to understanding the molecular mechanism of cytokinesis have converged on the gene spaghetti-squash (sqh). A genetic screen for mitotic mutants identified sqh1, a mutation that disrupts cytokinesis, which was then cloned by trans ... Full text Cite

Dynamic changes in the distribution of cytoplasmic myosin during Drosophila embryogenesis.

Journal Article Development (Cambridge, England) · January 1991 Dramatic changes in the localization of conventional non-muscle myosin characterize early embryogenesis in Drosophila melanogaster. During cellularization, myosin is concentrated around the furrow canals that form the leading margin of the plasma membrane ... Full text Cite

Chapter 6 Contractile and Cytoskeletal Proteins in Drosophila Embryogenesis

Journal Article Current Topics in Membranes · January 1, 1991 In Drosophila and other organisms, force production and transmission for cell shape changes during development; such movements are an integral part of homeostasis and development. A molecular description of how forces are produced, by components of the cyt ... Full text Cite

Identification of functional regions on the tail of Acanthamoeba myosin-II using recombinant fusion proteins. I. High resolution epitope mapping and characterization of monoclonal antibody binding sites.

Journal Article The Journal of cell biology · December 1990 We used a series of COOH-terminally deleted recombinant myosin molecules to map precisely the binding sites of 22 monoclonal antibodies along the tail of Acanthamoeba myosin-II. These antibodies bind to 14 distinguishable epitopes, some separated by less t ... Full text Cite

A beta-spectrin isoform from Drosophila (beta H) is similar in size to vertebrate dystrophin.

Journal Article The Journal of cell biology · November 1990 Spectrins are a major component of the membrane skeleton in many cell types where they are thought to contribute to cell form and membrane organization. Diversity among spectrin isoforms, especially their beta subunits, is associated with diversity in cell ... Full text Cite

The actin membrane skeleton in Drosophila development.

Journal Article Seminars in cell biology · October 1990 Movements, manifest as changes in cell arrangements and shape, are an integral part of metazoan development. The molecular basis of such movements is only now being understood. Drosophila offers an excellent opportunity to apply powerful classical and mode ... Cite

Complete sequence of the Drosophila nonmuscle myosin heavy-chain transcript: conserved sequences in the myosin tail and differential splicing in the 5' untranslated sequence.

Journal Article Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · August 1990 We have sequenced a cDNA that encodes the nonmuscle myosin heavy chain from Drosophila melanogaster. An alternatively spliced exon at the 5' end generates two distinct heavy-chain transcripts: the longer transcripts inserts an additional start codon upstre ... Full text Cite

Contractile proteins in Drosophila development.

Journal Article Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · January 1990 In summary, we have used a multidisciplinary approach to the analysis of actomyosin-based motility during Drosophila embryogenesis. We have documented the movements of early embryogenesis with modern, video methods. We have characterized the cytoplasmic my ... Full text Cite

Identification of functional regions on the tail of Acanthamoeba myosin-II using recombinant fusion proteins. I. High resolution epitope mapping and characterization of monoclonal antibody binding sites

Journal Article Journal of Cell Biology · January 1, 1990 We used a series of COOH-terminally deleted recombinant myosin molecules to map precisely the binding sites of 22 monoclonal antibodies along the tail of Acanthamoeba myosin-II. These antibodies bind to 14 distinguishable epitopes, some separated by <10 am ... Cite

A β-spectrin isoform from Drosophila (βH) is similar in size to vertebrate dystrophin

Journal Article Journal of Cell Biology · January 1, 1990 Spectrins are a major component of the membrane skeleton in many cell types where they are thought to contribute to cell form and membrane organization. Diversity among spectrin isoforms, especially their β subunits, is associated with diversity in cell sh ... Full text Cite

Drosophila spectrin: the membrane skeleton during embryogenesis.

Journal Article The Journal of cell biology · May 1989 The distribution of alpha-spectrin in Drosophila embryos was determined by immunofluorescence using affinity-purified polyclonal or monoclonal antibodies. During early development, spectrin is concentrated near the inner surface of the plasma membrane, in ... Full text Cite

Identification of the gene for fly non-muscle myosin heavy chain: Drosophila myosin heavy chains are encoded by a gene family.

Journal Article The EMBO journal · March 1989 In contrast to vertebrate species Drosophila has a single myosin heavy chain gene that apparently encodes all sarcomeric heavy chain polypeptides. Flies also contain a cytoplasmic myosin heavy chain polypeptide that by immunological and peptide mapping cri ... Full text Cite

Drosophilia spectrin. I. Characterization of the purified protein.

Journal Article The Journal of cell biology · November 1987 We purified a protein from Drosophila S3 tissue culture cells that has many of the diagnostic features of spectrin from vertebrate organisms: (a) The protein consists of two equimolar subunits (Mr = 234 and 226 kD) that can be reversibly cross-linked into ... Full text Cite

Drosophila spectrin. II. Conserved features of the alpha-subunit are revealed by analysis of cDNA clones and fusion proteins.

Journal Article The Journal of cell biology · November 1987 Drosophila alpha-spectrin cDNA sequences were isolated from a lambda gt11 expression library. These cDNA clones encode fusion proteins that include portions of the Drosophila alpha-spectrin polypeptide as shown by a number of structural and functional crit ... Full text Cite

Characterization of monoclonal antibodies to Acanthamoeba myosin-I that cross-react with both myosin-II and low molecular mass nuclear proteins.

Journal Article The Journal of cell biology · December 1986 We characterized nine monoclonal antibodies that bind to the heavy chain of Acanthamoeba myosin-IA. Eight of these antibodies bind to myosin-IB and eight cross-react with Acanthamoeba myosin-II. All but one of the antibodies bind to a 30-kD chymotryptic pe ... Full text Cite

Characterization of monoclonal antibodies to acanthamoeba myosin-I that cross-react with both myosin-II and low molecular mass nuclear proteins

Journal Article Journal of Cell Biology · December 1, 1986 We characterized nine monoclonal antibodies that bind to the heavy chain of Acanthamoeba myosin-IA. Eight of these antibodies bind to myosin- IB and eight cross-react with Acanthamoeba myosin-II. All but one of the antibodies bind to a 30-kD chymotryptic p ... Full text Cite

Cytoplasmic myosin from Drosophila melanogaster.

Journal Article The Journal of cell biology · October 1986 Myosin is identified and purified from three different established Drosophila melanogaster cell lines (Schneider's lines 2 and 3 and Kc). Purification entails lysis in a low salt, sucrose buffer that contains ATP, chromatography on DEAE-cellulose, precipit ... Full text Cite

Antibody inhibitors of nonmuscle myosin function and assembly.

Journal Article Methods in enzymology · January 1986 Full text Cite

Myosin from human erythrocytes.

Journal Article The Journal of biological chemistry · January 1985 We have purified myosin from human erythrocytes using methods similar to that for other cytoplasmic myosins with a yield of about 500 micrograms/100 ml of packed cells. It consists of a 200-kDa heavy chain and light chains of 26- and 19.5 kDa and therefore ... Full text Cite

Temporal sequence and spatial distribution of early events of fertilization in single sea urchin eggs.

Journal Article The Journal of cell biology · November 1984 Measurements and observations of five early events of fertilization, singly and in pairs, from single sea urchin eggs have revealed the precise temporal sequence and spatial distribution of these events. In the Arbacia punctulata egg, a wave of surface con ... Full text Cite

Inhibition of acanthamoeba actomyosin-II ATPase activity and mechanochemical function by specific monoclonal antibodies.

Journal Article The Journal of cell biology · September 1984 Monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies that bind to myosin-II were tested for their ability to inhibit myosin ATPase activity, actomyosin ATPase activity, and contraction of cytoplasmic extracts. Numerous antibodies specifically inhibit the actin activated M ... Full text Cite

Direct localization of monoclonal antibody-binding sites on Acanthamoeba myosin-II and inhibition of filament formation by antibodies that bind to specific sites on the myosin-II tail.

Journal Article The Journal of cell biology · September 1984 Electron microscopy of myosin-II molecules and filaments reacted with monoclonal antibodies demonstrates directly where the antibodies bind and shows that certain antibodies can inhibit the polymerization of myosin-II into filaments. The binding sites of s ... Full text Cite

Monoclonal antibodies demonstrate limited structural homology between myosin isozymes from Acanthamoeba.

Journal Article The Journal of cell biology · September 1984 We used a library of 31 monoclonal and six polyclonal antibodies to compare the structures of the two classes of cytoplasmic myosin isozymes isolated from Acanthamoeba: myosin-I, a 150,000-mol-wt, globular molecule; and myosin-II, a 400,000-mol-wt molecule ... Full text Cite

Stimulation of Acanthamoeba actomyosin ATPase activity by myosin-II polymerization.

Journal Article Nature · April 1984 Phosphorylation of the regulatory light chains of vertebrate smooth muscle or cytoplasmic myosins alters the structure of myosin monomers, favours myosin filament formation and stimulates the actin-activated Mg2+-ATPase of myosin. Similarly, in Dictyosteli ... Full text Cite

Actin and myosin function in acanthamoeba.

Journal Article Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · November 1982 We have studied the functions of contractile proteins in Acanthamoeba by a combination of structural, biochemical and physiological approaches. We used electron microscopy and image processing to determine the three-dimensional structure of actin and the o ... Full text Cite

Evidence that myosin does not contribute to force production in chromosome movement.

Journal Article The Journal of cell biology · July 1982 Antibody against cytoplasmic myosin, when microinjected into actively dividing cells, provides a physiological test for the role of actin and myosin in chromosome movement. Anti-Asterias egg myosin, characterized by Mabuchi and Okuno (1977, J. Cell Biol., ... Full text Cite

Microinjection of echinoderm eggs: apparatus and procedures.

Journal Article Methods in cell biology · January 1982 Full text Cite

Studies on the in vivo sensitivity of spindle microtubules to calcium ions and evidence for a vesicular calcium-sequestering system.

Journal Article The Journal of cell biology · March 1981 I microinjected calcium ions into echinoderm eggs during mitosis to determine the calcium sensitivity of microtubules (Mts) in vivo. Spindle birefringence (BR), a measure of the number of aligned Mts in the spindle, is locally, rapidly, and reversibly abol ... Full text Cite

Polymerization of actin. IV. Role of Ca++ and H+ in the assembly of actin and in membrane fusion in the acrosomal reaction of echinoderm sperm.

Journal Article The Journal of cell biology · May 1978 When Pisaster, Asterias, or Thyone sperm are treated with the ionophore A23187 or X537A, an acrosomal reaction similar but not identical to a normal acrosomal reaction is induced in all the sperm. Based upon the response of the sperm, the acrosomal reactio ... Full text Cite

Growth and lability of Chaetopterus oocyte mitotic spindles isolated in the presence of porcine brain tubulin.

Journal Article The Journal of cell biology · July 1974 Purified tubulin solutions stabilized and augmented the birefringence (BR) of isolated Chaetopterus spindles. Tubulin was extracted from pig brain tissue in cold PEG buffer (0.1 M piperazine-N-N'-bis[2-ethane sulfonic acid], 1 mM ethylene bis-[oxyethylenen ... Full text Cite