M6 membrane protein plays an essential role in Drosophila oogenesis.

ZAPPIA MP; BROCCO MA; BILLI, SILVIA; REZABAL, CAROLINA; ALBERTO C. FRASCH; CERIANI, MF

Congreso; 5th International Meeting; 2010

Latin American Society for Developmental Biology

We hadpreviously shown that the membrane glycoprotein M6a, a member of the proteolipid protein (PLP) family,regulates neurite/filopodium outgrowth. Hence, M6a might be involved in neuronal remodeling. In this work wefocused on M6, the only PLP family member present in Drosophila, and unexpectedly found that decreasedexpression of M6 leads to female sterility. M6 is present in the membrane of the follicular epithelia throughoutoogenesis. Phenotypes triggered by m6 downregulation included egg collapse and egg permeability, thussuggesting M6 involvement in eggshell biosynthesis. In addition, M6 knockdown targeted to follicle cellsinduced an arrest of egg chamber development, revealing that M6 is essential in oogenesis. Interestingly, M6-associated phenotypes evidenced abnormal changes of the follicle cell shape, disrupted follicular epitheliumand F-actin disorganization in mid- and late-stage egg chambers. Therefore, we propose that M6 plays a rolein actin dynamics underlying membrane cell remodeling during oogenesis in Drosophila.