Posterior segment of the Drosophila Larval Heart
Shown here is a triple-stained image of the Drosophila melanogaster larval heart tube. The posterior third of the heart (shown here) is contractile in nature and contains the pacemakers that regulate hemolymph pumping in response to both glutamate and CCAP (crustacean cardioactive peptide) (Dulcis and Levine, 2005). The larval heart is stained with FITC conjugated Phalloidin (green) to mark Actin filaments in both the heart muscles and the abdominal body wall muscles, an antibody against the Drosophila homolog of the SERCA protein (red; sarco-endoplasmic reticulum Calcium ATPase) (Sanyal, et. al., 2005; Sanyal et. al., 2006), and an antibody MAb3 that labels pericardial cells surrounding the heart tube (blue) (Yarnitzky and Volk, 1995).
References
1. Dulcis D, Levine RB. Glutamatergic innervation of the heart initiates retrograde contractions in adult Drosophila melanogaster. J Neurosci. 2005 ;25(2):271-80.
2. Sanyal S, Consoulas C, Kuromi H, Basole A, Mukai L, Kidokoro Y, Krishnan KS,Ramaswami M. Analysis of conditional paralytic mutants in Drosophila sarco-endoplasmic reticulum calcium ATPase reveals novel mechanisms for regulating membrane excitability. Genetics. 2005;169(2):737-50.
3. Sanyal S, Jennings T, Dowse H, Ramaswami M. Conditional mutations in SERCA, the Sarco-endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase, alter heart rate and rhythmicity in Drosophila. J Comp Physiol B. 2006;176(3):253-63.
4. Yarnitzky T, Volk T. Laminin is required for heart, somatic muscles, and gut development in the Drosophila embryo. Dev Biol. 1995;169(2):609-18.