Eph and Ephrin function in dispersal and epithelial insertion of pigmented immunocytes in sea urchin embryos
- University of Victoria, Canada
Abstract
The mechanisms that underlie directional cell migration are incompletely understood. Eph receptors usually guide migrations of cells by exclusion from regions expressing Ephrin. In sea urchin embryos, pigmented immunocytes are specified in vegetal epithelium, transition to mesenchyme, migrate, and re-enter ectoderm, distributing in dorsal ectoderm and ciliary band, but not ventral ectoderm. Immunocytes express Sp-Eph and Sp-Efn is expressed throughout dorsal and ciliary band ectoderm. Interfering with expression or function of Sp-Eph results in rounded immunocytes entering ectoderm but not adopting a dendritic form. Expressing Sp-Efn throughout embryos permits immunocyte insertion in ventral ectoderm. In mosaic embryos, immunocytes insert preferentially in ectoderm expressing Sp-Efn. We conclude that Sp-Eph signaling is necessary and sufficient for epithelial insertion. As well, we propose that immunocytes disperse when Sp-Eph enhances adhesion, causing haptotactic movement to regions of higher ligand abundance. This is a distinctive example of Eph/Ephrin signaling acting positively to pattern migrating cells.
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Funding
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (2413-2009)
- Robert D Burke
University of Victoria
- Robert D Burke
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (2016-03737)
- Robert D Burke
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Copyright
© 2016, Krupke et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Eph and Ephrin function in dispersal and epithelial insertion of pigmented immunocytes in sea urchin embryos
eLife 5:e16000.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.16000
