Abstract
Drosophila melanogaster has been used as a model organism for study on development and pathophysiology of the heart. LIM domain proteins act as adaptors or scaffolds to promote the assembly of multimeric protein complexes. We found a total of 75 proteins encoded by 36 genes have LIM domain in Drosophila melanogaster by the tools of SMART, FLY-FISH, and FlyExpress, and around 41.7% proteins with LIM domain locate in lymph glands, muscles system, and circulatory system. Furthermore, we summarized functions of different LIM domain proteins in the development and physiology of fly heart and hematopoietic systems. It would be attractive to determine whether it exists a probable “LIM code” for the cycle of different cell fates in cardiac and hematopoietic tissues. Next, we aspired to propose a new research direction that the LIM domain proteins may play an important role in fly cardiac and hematopoietic morphogenesis.
Highlights
The Drosophila melanogaster has emerged as a powerful model for studying heart development and cardiac diseases
The function and expression pattern of the homeobox transcription factor Tinman in Drosophila and its vertebrate homologous NKX2.5 are remarkably similar in the embryology of heart tube morphogenesis and heart function, and this strikingly provides the compelling evidence that heart development is controlled by conserved homologous pathways in both invertebrates and vertebrates [2,3,4,5,6]
We found a total of 75 proteins encoded by 36 genes have LIM domain in Drosophila melanogaster by the tools of SMART, and most proteins with LIM domain locate in lymph glands, muscles system, and circulatory system according to FLY-FISH, and FlyExpress
Summary
The Drosophila melanogaster has emerged as a powerful model for studying heart development and cardiac diseases. Wnt signaling activated by Wg, together with Dpp, is required for specification of cardiac progenitor cells in early heart development [8] These basic determinants of cardiogenesis in the fly play elementary roles in both the immature cardiac specification and heart function in the adult fly and human [4]. The hematopoietic system in Drosophila, which produces the hemolymph cells, is derived from the cardiac progenitors, some genes that affect heart development may be involved in regulating the differentiation of blood cells [14]. Based on the expression parrerns, and biological roles of the LIM domain, we speculated that it has an important function involved in Drosophila heart development, heart function, and/or hematopoietic morphogenesis. This review focus on the roles of LIM domain proteins in Drosophila cardiac and hematopoietic morphogenesis
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