UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF LEM DOMAIN PROTEINS IN DROSOPHILA DEVELOPMENT by

1 The nuclear lamina is a filamentous network that underlies the nuclear envelope. Lamina components include the family of LEM domain (LEM-D) proteins, named for LAP2, emerin and MAN1. Mutations in genes encoding LEM-D proteins cause tissue-restricted human disease, even though these genes are globally expressed. To understand the contributions of the LEM-D proteins to nuclear lamina function, investigations of the Drosophila LEM-D proteins was undertaken. The Drosophila genome encodes four LEM-D proteins and this thesis describes work done on the Drosophila homologues of MAN1 and emerin, Drosophila MAN1 (dMAN1) and Otefin (Ote). Chapter 2 describes the generation and phenotypic analyses of dMAN1 mutants. These mutants display a range of tissue-specific defects associated with an increase in BMP/Dpp signaling. This suggests that dMAN1 downregulates BMP/Dpp signaling at the nuclear periphery. Chapter 3 describes the identification and phenotypic analyses of ote mutants. Loss of Ote is associated with a tissue-specific defect of the female germline where ote mutan