Page 36 - Rappaport Institute Magazine 2024

GENETICS AND DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY
Adi Salzberg, DSc Professor of Genetics
DSc, 1992 – Technion, Israel
The genetic basis of sensory organ development
My research seeks to decipher genetic programs that regulates organogenesis in the peripheral nervous system. I am using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a genetic model organism in my studies. In recent years, I have focused mainly on the development and function of proprioceptive sensory organs termed chordotonal organs (ChO). Proprioception is the ability to sense the posture and movement of body parts based on signals from within the body. It requires the transduction of muscle-generated mechanical strain into sensory neuron impulses. Although vertebrate and invertebrate proprioceptors are structured differently, the underlying principle of their action is very similar. In both systems, a sensory neuron responds to deformations generated by muscle contractions via mechano-sensitive ion-channels. Obviously, mechanical signals are essential for the function of proprioceptors, however, the role of mechanical signals in their development, life-long maintenance and preservation upon muscle injury is largely unknown. The combination of diverse genetic tools and our ability to alter the mechanical forces experienced by the ChOs while visualizing them in the behaving animal is very powerful, making the ChO an ideal model system for addressing these questions.
Selected Publications
ˆ Hassan, A., Timerman, Y., Hamdan, R., Sela, N., Avetisyan, A., Halachmi, N.,
and Salzberg, A. (2018). An RNAi screen identifies new genes required for normal morphogenesis of larval chordotonal organs. G3: Genes Genomes Genetics. 8, 1871- 1884.
ˆ Avetisyan, A., and Salzberg, A. (2019). Accurate elimination of superfluous attachment cells is critical for the construction of functional multicellular proprioceptors in Drosophila. Cell Death and Differentiation. 26, 1895-1904.
ˆ Hassan, A., Sapir, L., Nitsan, I., Greenblatt Ben-El, R.T., Halachmi, N., Salzberg, A., and Tzlil, S. (2019). A change in ECM composition affects sensory organ mechanics and function. Cell Reports. 27, 2272-2280.
ˆ Avetisyan, A., Glatt, Y., Cohen, M., Timerman, Y., Aspis, N., Nachman, A.,
Halachmi, N., Preger-Ben Noon, E. and Salzberg A. (2021). delilah, prospero and D-Pax2 constitute a gene regulatory network essential for the development of functional proprioceptors. eLife. 29;10:e70833.
Grants and Awards
1999 – Research Career Development Award, Israel Cancer Research Fund 2014 – The Jacob Green Prize for Excellence in Teaching
2018 – The Yanai Prize for Excellence in Academic Education
adis@technion.ac.il
Adi Salzberg Lab
The five elongated cap cells of the lateral chordotonal organ are anchored to the larval body wall via two large, specialized attachment cells. The cells are visualized using a membrane-bound green fluorescent protein and a nuclear red fluorescent protein expressed specifically in these organs. These fluorescent reporters are used in our studies for following chordotonal organ morphology in live, behaving animals.