Assessment of sarcomere structure for transgenic lines
Electron micrographs of indirect flight muscles for each transgenic homozygote at multiple developmental stages were scored as to sarcomere integrity. Twenty-five longitudinal images collected from four organisms were examined at each stage of development for flies expressing each transgenic construct. For each image examined, one sarcomere was assessed from four different myofibrils. Sarcomeres were assigned values ranging from 1 to 10, with 1 indicating complete sarcomere disorganization and 10 resembling wild-type sarcomere structure. Disorganization was defined by degree of disruption in M- or Z-lines and/or gaps within a sarcomere. The mean determined from the assigned scores is reported along with the mean ± S.E.