ISSN:
1573-2657
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Biology
,
Medicine
Notes:
Abstract The presence and distribution of α-actinin has been studied in several invertebrate muscle cell types. These comprised transversely striated muscle (flight muscle) from the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, transversely striated muscle (heart muscle) from the snail Helix aspersa, obliquely striated muscle (body wall muscle) from the earthworm Eisenia foetida, smooth muscle (retractor muscle) from H. aspersa, and smooth muscle (outer muscular layer of the pseudoheart) from E. foetida. The study was carried by means of Western blot analysis, ELISA, and immunohistochemical electron microscopy, using anti α-actinin antibody. Immunoreaction for a protein with the same molecular weight as that of mammalian α- actinin was detected in all muscle types studied, although the amount and intensity of immunoreaction varied among them. In the insect muscle, immunolabelling was found along the whole Z-line. In both the transversely striated muscle from the snail and the obliquely striated muscle from the earthworm, immunolabelling did not occupy the whole Z-line but showed discontinuous, orderly arranged patches along the Z-line course. In the two smooth muscles studied (snail and earthworm), immunolabelling was limited to small patches which did not show an apparently ordered distribution. Since it is assumed that α-actinin is located at the anchorage sites for actin filaments, present observations suggest that, only in the Drosophila muscle, actin filaments areparallely arranged in all their course, whereas in the other invertebrate muscles studied these filaments converge on discontinuously distributed anchorage sites.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1005455931815
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