Involvement of physical strength of cells for neural-epidermal patterning in vertebrate embryos

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26440115
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Developmental biology
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: MICHIUE Tatsuo 東京大学, 大学院総合文化研究科, 教授 (10282724)
• Research Collaborator: MATSUKAWA Shinya ; YAMASHITA Satoshi , 博士研究員 ; WATANABE Tomoko ; ISHINABE Nanako ; IDE Takahiro ; HIRANO Sayuki
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 胚パターニング / 細胞張力 / 細胞形状 / アフリカツメガエル / FRET

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this project, we studied involvement of cell tension and cell shape for neural-epidermal patterning with Xenopus embryos. (1) We validated the FRET tension probes we made and showed they worked properly. Interestingly, cell tension was obviously different between neural and epidermal ectodermal. We also showed the change of cell tension by injecting with several factors as SoxD. (2) Inhibition of vinculin and actinin altered the localization of actin fiber in ectodermal cells. (3) We performed the profiling of the ectoderm cell shape. By these analyses, we found that the apical area and the orientation of cells showed difference between epidermal and neuroectoderm cells. These data suggest that both types of cells give rise to distinct strength depending on cell fate, resulting in the change of cell shape and tension and contributing determination of ectodermal pattern.

Free Research Field

分子発生生物学・幹細胞生物学