Induced neuroma formation and target muscle perturbation in the giant fiber pathway of the Drosophila temperature-sensitive mutant shibire

Summary The temperature-sensitive mutation shibire (shi) in Drosophila melanogaster is thought to disrupt membrane recycling processes, including endocytotic vesicle pinch-off. This mutation can perturb the development of nerves and muscles of the adult escape response. After exposure to a heat pulse (6 h at 30° C) at 20 h of pupal development, adults have abnormal flight muscles. Wing depressor muscles (DLM) are reduced in number from the normal six to one or two fibers, and are composed of enlarged fibers that appear to represent fiber fusion; large spaces devoid of muscle fibers suggested fiber deletion. The normal five motor axons are present in the peripheral nerve PDMN near the ganglion. However, while some motor axons pass dorsally to the extant fibers, other motor axons lacking end targets pass into an abnormal posterior branch and terminate in a neuroma, i.e., a tangle of axons and glia without muscle target tissue. Hemisynapses are common in axons of the proximal PDMN and within the neuroma, but they are rarely seen in control (no heat pulse) shi or wild-type flies. All surviving muscle fibers are innervated; no muscle tissue exists without innervation. Fibrillar fine structure and neuromuscular synapses appear normal. Fused fibers have dual innervation, suggesting correct and specific matching of target tissue and motor axons. Motor axons lacking target fibers do not innervate erroneous targets but instead terminate in the neuroma. These results suggest developmental constraints and rules, which may contribute to the orderly, stereotyped development in the normal flight system. The nature of the anomalies inducible in the flight motor system in shi flies implies that membrane recycling events at about 20 h of pupal development are critical to the formation of the normal adult nerve-muscle pattern for DLM flight muscles.