(The FASEB Journal. 2007;21:11.1)
© 2007 FASEB
Pushing and pulling migrating tissues in vivo with GPCRs
Darren Gilmour,
Petra Haas,
Gulcin Cakan,
Virginie Lecaudey,
Guillaume Valentin,
Julien Colombelli and
Ernst Stelzer
EMBL, Meyerhofstrasse 1, Heidelberg, Germany
ABSTRACT
Most complex organ systems arise from the directed migration of cells in cohesive groups, such as sheets, chains and clusters. In this morphogenetic context, migration achieves significantly more than the simple displacement of cells from one location to another, it allows these cell groups to build three-dimensional structures. Interestingly, recent studies using genetic mosaics have shown that while extracellular cues clearly guide such migration events, their receptors need only be expressed by cells at the very leading edge of the tissue. Here, we address the mechanisms that control the migration of cells within one such cohesive tissue, the zebrafish lateral line primordium. This is transient migrating structure, comprising of some 100 cells, whose function is to deposit a series of mechanosensory organs throughout the skin of the fish. By combining in vivo imaging with a number of functional approaches - including genetic mosaics, laser microdissection and small molecule inhibitors - we have begun to address the chemical and mechanical cues that regulate coordinated cell movement. This work reveals that many aspects of this tissue morphogenesis, including the direction of migration and the formation and deposition of organs, are based on self-organising principles.
