Flight muscle myofibrillogenesis in the pupal stage of Drosophila as examined by X-ray microdiffraction and conventional diffraction

Synchrotron Radiation X-ray Diffraction Techniques Applied to Insect Flight Muscle

X-ray fiber diffraction is a powerful tool used for investigating the molecular structure of muscle and its dynamics during contraction. This technique has been successfully applied not only to skeletal and cardiac muscles of vertebrates but also to insect flight muscle. Generally, insect flight muscle has a highly ordered structure and is often capable of high-frequency oscillations. The X-ray diffraction studies on muscle have been accelerated by the advent of 3rd-generation synchrotron radiation facilities, which can generate brilliant and highly oriented X-ray beams. This review focuses on some of the novel experiments done on insect flight muscle by using synchrotron radiation X-rays. These include diffraction recordings from single myofibrils within a flight muscle fiber by using X-ray microbeams and high-speed diffraction recordings from the flight muscle during the wing-beat of live insects. These experiments have provided information about the molecular structure and dynamic function of flight muscle in unprecedented detail. Future directions of X-ray diffraction studies on muscle are also discussed.

X-ray diffraction from flight muscle with a headless myosin mutation: implications for interpreting reflection patterns

Fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) is one of the most useful animal models to study the causes and effects of hereditary diseases because of its rich genetic resources. It is especially suitable for studying myopathies caused by myosin mutations, because specific mutations can be induced to the flight muscle-specific myosin isoform, while leaving other isoforms intact. Here we describe an X-ray-diffraction-based method to evaluate the structural effects of mutations in contractile proteins in Drosophila indirect flight muscle. Specifically, we describe the effect of the headless myosin mutation, Mhc (10) -Y97, in which the motor domain of the myosin head is deleted, on the X-ray diffraction pattern. The loss of general integrity of the filament lattice is evident from the pattern. A striking observation, however, is the prominent meridional reflection at d = 14.5 nm, a hallmark for the regularity of the myosin-containing thick filament. This reflection has long been considered to arise mainly from the myosin head, but taking the 6th actin layer line reflection as an internal control, the 14.5-nm reflection is even stronger than that of wild-type muscle. We confirmed these results via electron microscopy, wherein image analysis revealed structures with a similar periodicity. These observations have major implications on the interpretation of myosin-based reflections.

Flight muscle-specific Pro-Ala-rich extension of troponin is important for maintaining the insect-type myofilament lattice integrity

Insect flight muscle (IFM) can oscillate at frequencies up to 1000Hz, owing to its capability of stretch activation (SA). It is a highly specialized form of cross striated muscles, and its peculiar features include the IFM-specific isoform of troponin-I (troponin-H or TnH) with an unusually long Pro-Ala-rich extension at the C-terminus. Although we have shown that this extension does not directly take part in SA, questions remain as to what its real role is and why it is expressed only in IFM. Here we explored the structural role of the extension, be comparing X-ray diffraction patterns and electron micrographs of bumblebee IFM fibers before and after enzymatic removal of the extension. The removal had a dramatic effect on diffraction patterns: In IFMs in general, the equatorial 2,0 reflection is much stronger than the 1,1 reflection, but after removal, their intensities became almost equal (stronger 1,1 is a feature of vertebrate skeletal muscle). Electron micrographs revealed that a substantial fraction of the thin filaments showed a tendency to move towards the vertebrate position (the trigonal position between three thick filaments), while the rest of the thin filaments remained in their original insect position (midway between two neighboring thick filaments). Therefore, one of the roles of the extension is suggested to keep the filament lattice in the correct configuration for IFM. This insect-type lattice structure is preserved among IFMs from varied insect orders but not in body muscles, suggesting that the maintenance of this lattice structure is important for flight functions.

X-ray diffraction recording from single axonemes of eukaryotic flagella

We report the first X-ray diffraction patterns recorded from single axonemes of eukaryotic flagella with a diameter of only <0.2 μm, by using the technique of cryomicrodiffraction. A spermatozoon isolated from the testis of a fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, either intact or demembranated, was mounted straight in a glass capillary, quickly frozen and its 800-μm segment was irradiated end-on with intense synchrotron radiation X-ray microbeams (diameter, ~2 μm) at 74 K. Well-defined diffraction patterns were recorded, consisting of a large number of isolated reflection spots, extending up to 1/5 nm(-1). These reflections showed a tendency to peak every 20°, i.e., the patterns had features of an 18-fold rotational symmetry as expected from the 9-fold rotational symmetry of axonemal structure. This means that the axonemes remain untwisted, even after the manual mounting procedure. The diffraction patterns were compared with the results of model calculations based on a published electron micrograph of the Drosophila axoneme. The comparison provided information about the native state of axoneme, including estimates of axonemal diameter, interdoublet spacing, and masses of axonemal components relative to those of microtubules (e.g., radial spokes, dynein arms, and proteins associated with accessory singlet microtubules). When combined with the genetic resource of Drosophila, the technique presented here will serve as a powerful tool for studying the structure-function relationship of eukaryotic flagella in general.