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Projekt
Dynamics of cell contacts during cell intercalation in germband extension of Drosophila
Antragsteller
Professor Dr. Jörg Großhans; Professor Dr. Fred Wolf
Fachliche Zuordnung
Entwicklungsbiologie
Förderung
Förderung von 2011 bis 2019
Projektkennung
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 200509276
Cell intercalation leads to tissue elongation that is central to many morphogenetic processes during development. In epithelia, intercalation is driven by a concerted shrinking and extension of cell junctions which can be described as a topological T1 process. It has been previously proposed that junction dynamics is autonomously controlled by actomyosin generated forces. We found that the extension of new junctions is non-autonomous and depends on the coordination of cell area changes between the cells participating in the T1 process. This coordination requires tissue tension and E-Cadherin. Large scale cuts in the tissue lead to impaired resolution of 4x vertices. We propose to investigate the mechanism of E-Cadherin dependent coordination in area changes. The coordinated cell dynamics will be characterized using a high yield quantitative imaging approach developed in the initial funding period. We will investigate candidates that may signal between adherens junctions and actomyosin, such as Rho signalling and junction associated regulators of F-actin. Furthermore, we will investigate the mechanism how tissue cuts affect the loss of coordination in cell area changes. We will test the hypothesis that E-Cadherin is the mediator of a mechanotransduction pathway that senses the applied stress in one cell and elicits a signal in the other cell. We will establish methods for the identification of stochastic dynamical systems models of intercellular coordination. These models will enable us to accurately characterize the contribution of distinct junction-types to intercellular coordination.
DFG-Verfahren
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