"Is Motor Innervation Required for the Development of a Unique Somatic Muscle?"
Ronald J. Bayline, Washington and Jefferson College, Washington, PA 15301

Insects that undergo complete metamorphosis must reorganize their neuromuscular systems to accommodate adult structures and behaviors. In the moth, Manduca sexta, reorganization involves the degeneration and respecification of larval muscles along with the development of novel adult muscles, requiring motor innervation for myoblast accumulation and proliferation. One adult somatic muscle in each abdominal segment, the tergosternal (TS) muscle, develops later than other adult muscles with a different structure. The TS may share a developmental origin with the visceral ventral diaphragm (VD) muscle. I hypothesize that the TS muscle does not require motor innervation for myoblast accumulation or proliferation. Surgically removing the VD precursor cells from their origin will reveal whether the TS and VD muscles share a developmental origin. Denervating the TS muscle will reveal whether innervation is necessary for TS development. These results will provide insight into the variability of muscle developmental mechanisms in a single organism.

Ronald J. Bayline, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biology
Washington & Jefferson College
60 South Lincoln Street
Washington, PA 15301-4801
Phone: (724) 250-3406
Fax: (724) 223-2657