Image of a head motor unit enabling feeding behavior in flies. Function of the Hox Protein Deformed is essential for the development and maintenance of this motor unit that comprises a muscle (red) and its innervating neurons (green), as well as interconnecting synapses (blue).
In experiments on the fruit fly model organism Drosophila melanogaster, Heidelberg University biologists gained new insight into how feeding behaviour is encoded and controlled. The research team led by Ingrid Lohmann of the Centre for Organismal Studies (COS) studied the function of a special developmental gene of the Hox gene family. This gene is essential for maintaining a motor unit in the fly's head that consists of a muscle and the stimulating neurons that enable the fly to feed. If the function of the Hox gene was damaged or defective, the unit was not or only partially developed and the animals starved. The results of the research were published in the journal "Cell Reports". "Animals interact with their environment based on stereotypical movement patterns, such as those performed during running, breathing or feeding," explains Prof. Lohmann, who directs the Developmental Biology research group at the Centre for Organismal Studies. "We have known for some time that a family of regulatory genes known as Hox genes is essential for establishing coordinated movement patterns.
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