Molecular Genetics of Organ Morphogenesis

Our laboratory's long term goal is to understand how individual cells control their shapes and coordinate with other cells to create the complex organs found in multicellular organisms. To this end, we are using genetic, molecular and cell biological approaches to identify and study genes required for the morphogenesis of the Drosophila tracheal system. The Drosophila tracheal system is a ramifying network of epithelial tubes that serves as a combined airway and vascular system for delivering oxygen to tissues in the fly. At the molecular level, Drosophila tracheal development has striking similarities to both vertebrate lung and vascular development. These similarities, coupled with the simplicity of the tracheal system and the power of Drosophila genetics, makes the tracheal system an outstanding model system for understanding the morphogenesis of the tubular epithelia that are central to such vertebrate organs as the vascular system, lung and kidney.

We have shown that size of the Drosophila tracheal tubes is controlled by genetic programs and identified mutations in more than fifteen genes that cause the tracheal tubes to have abnormal lengths or diameters. We and others have cloned many of these genes and shown that many of them encode components of a cell-cell junction that also control paracellular diffusion, cell polarity and cell growth . We are characterizing the cell biological and biochemical functions of these proteins in both flies and vertebrates, and are working to clone additional genes that control cell shape.

Le T, Yu M, Williams B, Goel S, Paul SM, Beitel GJ. CaSpeR5, a family of Drosophila transgenesis and shuttle vectors with improved multiple cloning sites.
Biotechniques. 2007 Feb;42(2):164, 166. No abstract available. PMID: 17373479 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Wu VM, Yu MH, Paik R, Banerjee S, Liang Z, Paul SM, Bhat MA, Beitel GJ. Drosophila Varicose, a member of a new subgroup of basolateral MAGUKs, is required for septate junctions and tracheal morphogenesis. Development. 2007 Mar;134(5):999-1009. Epub 2007 Jan 31. PMID: 17267446 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Paul SM, Palladino MJ, Beitel GJ. A pump-independent function of the Na,K-ATPase is required for epithelial junction function and tracheal tube-size control.
Development. 2007 Jan;134(1):147-55. PMID: 17164420 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Le T, Liang Z, Patel H, Yu MH, Sivasubramaniam G, Slovitt M, Tanentzapf G, Mohanty N, Paul SM, Wu VM, Beitel GJ. A new family of Drosophila balancer chromosomes with a w- dfd-GMR yellow fluorescent protein marker. Genetics. 2006 Dec;174(4):2255-7. Epub 2006 Oct 22. PMID: 17057238 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Swanson LE, Beitel GJ. Tubulogenesis: an inside job. Curr Biol. 2006 Jan 24;16(2):R51-3. Review. No abstract available. PMID: 16431358 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Paul SM, Beitel GJ. Tubulogenesis: zipping up your fly. Curr Biol. 2005 Jan 26;15(2):R70-2. Review. PMID: 15668162 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Wu VM, Beitel GJ. A junctional problem of apical proportions: epithelial tube-size control by septate junctions in the Drosophila tracheal system. Curr Opin Cell Biol. 2004 Oct;16(5):493-9. Review. PMID: 15363798 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Solomon A, Bandhakavi S, Jabbar S, Shah R, Beitel GJ, Morimoto RI. Caenorhabditis elegans OSR-1 regulates behavioral and physiological responses to hyperosmotic environments. Genetics. 2004 May;167(1):161-70. PMID: 15166144 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Wu VM, Schulte J, Hirschi A, Tepass U, Beitel GJ. Sinuous is a Drosophila claudin required for septate junction organization and epithelial tube size control. J Cell Biol. 2004 Jan 19;164(2):313-23. PMID: 14734539 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Paul SM, Beitel GJ. Developmental biology. Tubulogenesis CLICs into place.
Science. 2003 Dec 19;302(5653):2077-8. No abstract available. PMID: 14684810 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Paul SM, Ternet M, Salvaterra PM, Beitel GJ. The Na+/K+ ATPase is required for septate junction function and epithelial tube-size control in the Drosophila tracheal system. Development. 2003 Oct;130(20):4963-74. Epub 2003 Aug 20. PMID: 12930776 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Beitel GJ, Lambie EJ, Horvitz HR. The C. elegans gene lin-9,which acts in an Rb-related pathway, is required for gonadal sheath cell development and encodes a novel protein. Gene. 2000 Aug 22;254(1-2):253-63. PMID: 10974557 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Beitel GJ, Krasnow MA. Genetic control of epithelial tube size in the Drosophila tracheal system. Development. 2000 Aug;127(15):3271-82. PMID: 10887083 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

View all publications by Greg Beitel listed in the National Library of Medicine (PubMed).