A new experimental model to study force depression: the Drosophila jump muscle

Force depression (FD) is a decrease in isometric force following active muscle shortening. Despite being well characterized experimentally, its underlying mechanism remains unknown. To develop a new, genetically manipulatable experimental model that would greatly improve our ability to study the underlying mechanism(s) of FD, we tested the Drosophila jump muscle for classical FD behavior. Steady-state force generation following active shortening decreased by 2, 8, and 11% of maximum isometric force with increasing shortening amplitudes of 5, 10, and 20% of optimal fiber length, and decreased by 11, 8, and 5% with increasing shortening velocities of 4, 20, and 200% of optimal fiber length per second. These steady-state FD (FDSS) characteristics of Drosophila jump muscle mimic those observed in mammalian skeletal muscle. A double exponential fit of transient force recovery following shortening identified two separate phases of force recovery: a rapid initial force redevelopment, and a slower recovery toward steady state. This analysis showed the slower rate of force redevelopment to be inversely proportional to the amount of FDSS, while the faster rate did not correlate with FDSS. This suggests that the mechanism behind the slower, most likely cross-bridge cycling rate, influences the amount of FDSS. Thus the jump muscle, when coupled with the genetic mutability of its sarcomere proteins, offers a unique and powerful experimental model to explore the underlying mechanism behind FD.