Research Overview

Biological tubes are the basic structure of many essential organs, such as the respiratory, circulatory and secretary organs. They serve many important physiological roles, including delivery of gases, nutrients and hormones, removal of waste and maintaining tissue homeostasis. Many tubular organs consist of one or more layers of cells surrounding a central lumen. Proper development of organs during embryogenesis and their maintenance in the adult is essential for organ function. In the Myat lab, we investigate three aspects of epithelial tube formation:

1) Collective migration
2) Control of tubular organ lumen size
3) Branching morphogenesis

To understand these events, we use the embryonic salivary gland and tracheal tubes of Drosophila melanogaster as model systems. The Drosophila embryonic salivary glands consist of a pair of elongated unbranched epithelial tubes that serve a secretory function in the larval stage. In contrast, the embryonic tracheal tubes are a network of branched tubes that serve as the respiratory organ of the larva. Despite the morphological differences between the salivary gland and trachea, these tubular organs share some similar cellular and molecular mechanisms in their development. The large repertoire of genetic and cellular tools available in Drosophila allow us to investigate how these tubular organs are formed and the genes that regulate their formation so that we can better understand the development of more complex organs as well as pathological conditions characterized by defects in tube formation and/or function.