Contact:

Richard Cripps, (505) 277-2822 or Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821

March 15, 2001

UNM BIOLOGY PROFESSOR AWARDED $1.05 MILLION GRANT TO RESEARCH SKELETAL MUSCLE DEVELOPMENT

University of New Mexico assistant professor of biology Richard Cripps was awarded a $1.05 million grant over five years from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (National Institutes of Health) to study the development and diversity of muscles in Drosophila, which are small fruit flies used in studying basic mechanisms of inheritance.

The goal of the research is to define mechanisms in Drosophila which control skeletal muscle fiber diversity.

“In humans different skeletal muscles are adapted to perform a variety of functions,” said Cripps. “Muscles required for posture are used continuously and contract at low frequencies, compared to those used for running, which are adapted for bursts of sustained activity between periods of rest.”

Similarly, flies have distinct muscle types.

“The fly also has skeletal muscles which are adapted for two major purposes,” Cripps said. “The fibrillar muscles contract at high frequencies and provide a large amount of power required to move the wings during flight. In contrast, tubular muscles are used for locomotion and jumping, and contract at lower frequencies.”

Since many myopathies (diseases in human muscle tissue) affect one group of muscles over another group, understanding how muscle classes arise in the first place will provide insight into what might occur when muscle development or function goes awry.

“The goal is to understand how molecular events tell a cell what type of muscle it will form,” said Cripps. “The particular process we are studying is how muscles are made during the pupa or metamorphosis stage. If we can understand why one gene is switched on and not another, it can tell us how cells identify what genes control decisions to form one type of muscle over another.”

In order to determine how distinct muscles arise Cripps will use transgenic and biochemical methods to identify factors controlling the transcriptional regulation of two muscle fiber-specific genes. The findings will contribute to an understanding of how mesodermal cells are specified to give rise to diverse muscle types and how different factors induce diversity in muscles.

Extensive research has already proven that the mechanisms controlling myogenesis, which is the developmental sequence of events leading to the formation of adult muscle that occurs in animals and in cultured cells, are highly conserved through evolution meaning the identification of factors controlling muscle diversity in Drosophila will be very relevant to understanding myogenesis in vertebrates. Understanding how muscle classes arise in the first place might ultimately lead to rational therapies for diagnosing and treating those types of diseases.

The funding provided by the NIH grant will support salary and research costs for laboratory personnel and the purchase of new equipment to facilitate the research efforts. Additionally, a number of graduate and undergraduate students will be assisting Cripps and technicians TyAnna Lovato and Stryder Meadows in the lab. Graduate students include Kathleen Kelly, Denver, Colo., Phillip Baker, Albuquerque, and Christina O’Chery Fridrick, Metairie, La. and undergraduates Marco Molina, Deming, N.M., Adrian Benjamin and Thiennga Nguyen of Albuquerque and Ankita Nanavaty, India.

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The University of New Mexico
Public Affairs Department
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Albuquerque, NM 87131-0011
Telephone: (505) 277-5813
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