Drosophila let-7 microRNA is required for remodeling of the neuromusculature during metamorphosis

Nicholas S. Sokol; Peizhang Xu; Yuh-Nung Jan; Victor Ambros

doi:10.1101/gad.1671708

Drosophila let-7 microRNA is required for remodeling of the neuromusculature during metamorphosis

¹ Department of Genetics, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755, USA;
² Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Physiology, and Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94143, USA

Abstract

The Drosophila let-7-Complex (let-7-C) is a polycistronic locus encoding three ancient microRNAs: let-7, miR-100, and fly lin-4 (miR-125). We find that the let-7-C locus is principally expressed in the pupal and adult neuromusculature. let-7-C knockout flies appear normal externally but display defects in adult behaviors (e.g., flight, motility, and fertility) as well as clear juvenile features in their neuromusculature. We find that the function of let-7-C to ensure the appropriate remodeling of the abdominal neuromusculature during the larval-to-adult transition is carried out predominantly by let-7 alone. This heterochronic role of let-7 is likely just one of the ways in which let-7-C promotes adult behavior.

Keywords

Footnotes

↵3 Present addresses: Indiana University, 1001 E. 3rd St., Jordan Hall A502, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA;
↵4 University of Massachusetts Medical School, Program in Molecular Medicine, 373 Plantation St., Two Biotech, Suite 306, Worcester, MA 01605, USA.
↵5 Corresponding authors.

↵5 E-MAIL vrambros{at}gmail.com; FAX (508) 856-5657.
↵6 E-MAIL nsokol{at}indiana.edu; FAX (812) 855-6082.
Supplemental material is available at http://www.genesdev.org.
Article is online at http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.1671708.
- Received March 10, 2008.
- Accepted April 11, 2008.