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¹ Institut de Biologie du Développement de Marseille-Luminy, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique UMR 6216, Université de la Méditerranée, 13288 Marseille, Cedex 9, France
² Unité Mixte de Recherche, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale et Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 6247-Genetique, Reproduction et Developpement, Université de Clermont-Ferrand, 63000 Clermont-Ferrand, France

Correspondence to Caroline Medioni: medioni{at}ibdml.univ-mrs.fr

Tubulogenesis is an essential component of organ development, yet the underlying cellular mechanisms are poorly understood. We analyze here the formation of the Drosophila melanogaster cardiac lumen that arises from the migration and subsequent coalescence of bilateral rows of cardioblasts. Our study of cell behavior using three-dimensional and time-lapse imaging and the distribution of cell polarity markers reveals a new mechanism of tubulogenesis in which repulsion of prepatterned luminal domains with basal membrane properties and cell shape remodeling constitute the main driving forces. Furthermore, we identify a genetic pathway in which roundabout, slit, held out wings, and dystroglycan control cardiac lumen formation by establishing nonadherent luminal membranes and regulating cell shape changes. From these data we propose a model for D. melanogaster cardiac lumen formation, which differs, both at a cellular and molecular level, from current models of epithelial tubulogenesis. We suggest that this new example of tube formation may be helpful in studying vertebrate heart tube formation and primary vasculogenesis.

Abbreviations used in this paper: Arm, Armadillo; CB, cardioblast; DE-Cad, DE-cadherin; Dg, Dystroglycan; Dlg, Discs large; How, Held out wings; Lgl, Lethal giant larvae; Robo, Roundabout; Shg, Shotgun; Trol, Terribly reduced optic lobes; UAS, upstream activating sequence.

© 2008 Medioni et al. This article is distributed under the terms of an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike–No Mirror Sites license for the first six months after the publication date (see http://www.jcb.org/misc/terms.shtml). After six months it is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license, as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/).

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