Abstract
The circulatory system of Drosophila melanogaster represents an easily amenable genetic model whose analysis at different levels, i.e., from single molecules up to functional anatomy, has provided new insights into general aspects of cardiogenesis, heart physiology and cardiac aging, to name a few examples. In recent years, the Drosophila heart has also attracted the attention of researchers in the field of biomedicine. This development is mainly due to the fact that several genes causing human heart disease are also present in Drosophila, where they play the same or similar roles in heart development, maintenance or physiology as their respective counterparts in humans. This review will attempt to briefly introduce the anatomy of the Drosophila circulatory system and then focus on the different cell types and non-cellular tissue that constitute the heart.
Highlights
Studying organogenesis and organ functionality requires basic knowledge of the functional anatomy of the organ itself
We will provide an introduction to Drosophila heart anatomy that will guide the reader through the very basic principles of Drosophila heart function and the cell types that constitute the cardiovascular system of the fly
Drosophila melanogaster displays such an open circulatory system, with a simple tube-like heart that pumps the hemolymph from the posterior body region towards the anterior
Summary
Studying organogenesis and organ functionality requires basic knowledge of the functional anatomy of the organ itself. We will provide an introduction to Drosophila heart anatomy that will guide the reader through the very basic principles of Drosophila heart function and the cell types that constitute the cardiovascular system of the fly. We will not discuss the histology and morphogenesis of the heart in detail; instead, we will present a general overview, with selected histological data illustrating the Drosophila heart architecture. The pictures shown were chosen as representatives of the available imaging methods that are widely used in the Drosophila system and that have been developed over the years since the seminal anatomical studies of Miller and Rizki [1,2]
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