Blistery encodes Drosophila tensin protein and interacts with integrin and the JNK signaling pathway during wing development

Tensin is an actin-binding protein that is localized in focal adhesions. At focal adhesion sites, tensin participates in the protein complex that establishes transmembrane linkage between the extracellular matrix and cytoskeletal actin filaments. Even though there have been many studies on tensin as an adaptor protein, the role of tensin during development has not yet been clearly elucidated. Thus, this study was designed to dissect the developmental role of tensin by isolating Drosophila tensin mutants and characterizing its role in wing development. The Drosophila tensin loss-of-function mutations resulted in the formation of blisters in the wings, which was due to a defective wing unfolding process. Interestingly, by(1)-the-mutant allele of the gene blistery (by)-also showed a blistered wing phenotype, but failed to complement the wing blister phenotype of the Drosophila tensin mutants, and contains Y62N/T163R point mutations in Drosophila tensin coding sequences. These results demonstrate that by encodes Drosophild tensin protein and that the Drosophild tensin mutants are alleles of by. Using a genetic approach, we have demonstrated that tensin interacts with integrin and also with the components of the JNK signaling pathway during wing development; overexpression of by in wing imaginal discs significantly increased JNK activity and induced apoptotic cell death. Collectively, our data suggest that tensin relays signals from the extracellular matrix to the cytoskeleton through interaction with integrin, and through the modulation of the JNK signal transduction pathway during Drosophild wing development.