In our team, we studied the cellular and molecular mechanisms governing muscle development and repair. In fact, the special distribution of mRNA molecules is known to regulate various cellular processes. And here, we use the Drosophila as a model to investigate how the mRNAs are especially distributed within the fly's muscle tissue.
Gene expression dynamic have been proven to regulate various muscle biological process. The advent of high-throughput single cell and single nuclei RNA sequencing techniques has enabled a comprehensive exploration of the transcriptional dynamics. One notable limitation of classical omics techniques is an inability to provide those spatial distribution of mRNA molecules within the Drosophila muscle fibers.
This feature can be investigated by single molecule fluorescence in situ hybridization. Current methods are insufficient to determine the mRNA transcriptional dynamics and spatial distribution within Drosophila muscle system. To address this limitation, we optimized a method to detect and to codify the individual mRNA molecules in Drosophila muscle fibers with high spatial resolution and signal molecule scales.
A current challenge in the field is to visualize the muscle regeneration dynamic in real time and in living animal. That's why we are trying to develop a live imaging approach to visualize the muscle stem cell behavior in their native environment, and also to address the question of their mode and range of migration, for example, during the muscle regeneration and also their differentiation and this with unprecedented resolution.
