Live Imaging of Myogenesis in Indirect Flight Muscles in Drosophila

The indirect flight muscles (IFMs) are the largest muscles in the fly, making up the bulk of the adult thorax. IFMs in Drosophila are generated during pupariation by fusion of hundreds of muscle precursor cells (myoblasts) with larval muscle templates (myotubes). Prominent features, including the large number of fusion events, the structural similarity to vertebrate muscles, and the amenability to the powerful genetic techniques of the Drosophila system make the IFMs an attractive system to study muscle cell fusion. Here we describe methods for live imaging of IFMs, both in intact pupae, and in isolated IFMs ex-vivo. The protocols elaborated upon here were used in the manuscript by ( Segal et al., 2016 ).