Ines Olivera Crego and Ernesto Sanchez-Herrero Arbide
Posters-Accepted Abstracts: Biol Syst Open Access
The specification of different structures in animals is frequently dependent on signal coming from nearby tissues. We have addressed this problem by studying the determination of reproductive system muscles that surround the male testes. We have found that the correct development of these muscles which are smooth ones requires the activity of the genes Six4, Abdominal-B and Drop in the muscle cells. To study if there are signals that may also affect muscle development, we decided to explore the tissue that surrounds this muscle formed by cells known as pigment cells. These are a male specific type of cells derived from the fat body which surrounds the gonads and give the specific yellow color to the testes. We have studied the role of these cells during muscle cell fate determination and have observed that pigment cell alteration triggers muscle defects. One modification that entails dramatic aberrations in muscles and testes is the sex reversal of these cells that is changing them to female cells. Therefore, this muscle is very sensitive to sex alterations. There is growing concern that accumulation of contaminants may produce serious change in animal species including disruption of hormones that contribute to sex determination. We propose this Drosophila tissue as a good candidate to study the genetic alterations due to hormonal disruptors and other contaminants.
