Lifetime of histoblast cytoneme (cellular projection specialized for exchange of signaling proteins between cells)

Range ~11±2.6 min
Organism Fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster
Reference Bischoff M et al., Cytonemes are required for the establishment of a normal Hedgehog morphogen gradient in Drosophila epithelia. Nat Cell Biol. 2013 Nov15(11):1269-81. doi: 10.1038/ncb2856. p.1273 right column top paragraphPubMed ID24121526
Comments p.1273 left column bottom paragraph:"Cytonemes are dynamic structures: Next [investigators] analysed the behaviour of individual cytonemes. As in wing discs, Ihog–RFP/CFP expression stabilized cytonemes also in abdomen—[they] could observe individual protrusions for up to 9.5 h. To study cytoneme dynamics, [they] therefore used GMA [an actin-binding fragment of Moesin that labels actin filaments] instead of Ihog–RFP/CFP to visualize cytonemes. Without Ihog, histoblast cytonemes were thinner and shorter (up to 26 μm Fig. 5g,h and Supplementary Video S8) and had a lifetime of about 11±2.6 min (n = 6 Supplementary Video S9). With a growth rate of approximately 5 μm/min, they grew faster than filopodia observed in other in vivo systems (3.3 μm/min ref. 37) and in vitro assays (2.5 μm/min ref. 38). Cytonemes were very dynamic they grew to their final length and immediately shrank (Supplementary Fig. S3 and Video S10). [Investigators] could also image cytonemes using the membrane markers CD4–Tomato [ref 31] and Gap43–Venus [ref 39] (Supplementary Videos S11 and S12)." IHog=Hh co-receptor Interference hedgehog
Entered by Uri M
ID 112077