Our lab is studying the processes of mesoderm patterning and muscle development during embryogenesis of the fruit fly Drosophila. Specifically, we aim to define the identities and functions of regulatory molecules that subdivide the mesodermal cell layer and determine the primordial cells of the heart, skeletal, and visceral musculatures at defined locations in the early embryo. Several of these patterning processes were found to involve the synergistic activities of mesoderm-specific transcription factors and signaling molecules that are secreted from the ectoderm. Recent findings have established that many of the mechanisms in mesoderm patterning and heart development are closely related between insects and vertebrates.