1. Developmental Biology
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Regulation of posterior body and epidermal morphogenesis in Zebrafish by localized Yap1 and Wwtr1

  1. David Kimelman  Is a corresponding author
  2. Natalie L Smith
  3. Jason Kuan Han Lai
  4. Didier YR Stainier
  1. University of Washington, United States
  2. Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, Germany
Research Article
  • Cited 14
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Cite this article as: eLife 2017;6:e31065 doi: 10.7554/eLife.31065

Abstract

The vertebrate embryo undergoes a series of dramatic morphological changes as the body extends to form the complete anterior-posterior axis during the somite-forming stages. The molecular mechanisms regulating these complex processes are still largely unknown. We show that the Hippo pathway transcriptional coactivators Yap1 and Wwtr1 are specifically localized to the presumptive epidermis and notochord, and play a critical and unexpected role in posterior body extension by regulating Fibronectin assembly underneath the presumptive epidermis and surrounding the notochord. We further find that Yap1 and Wwtr1, also via Fibronectin, have an essential role in the epidermal morphogenesis necessary to form the initial dorsal and ventral fins, a process previously thought to involve bending of an epithelial sheet, but which we now show involves concerted active cell movement. Our results reveal how the Hippo pathway transcriptional program, localized to two specific tissues, acts to control essential morphological events in the vertebrate embryo.

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Author details

  1. David Kimelman

    Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, United States
    For correspondence
    kimelman@uw.edu
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-9261-4506

  2. Natalie L Smith

    Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.

  3. Jason Kuan Han Lai

    Department of Developmental Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, Bad Nauheim, Germany
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.

  4. Didier YR Stainier

    Department of Developmental Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, Bad Nauheim, Germany
    Competing interests
    Didier YR Stainier, Senior editor, eLife.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-0382-0026

Funding

National Institutes of Health (GM079203)

  • David Kimelman

Max Planck Society

  • Jason Kuan Han Lai
  • Didier YR Stainier

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: This study was performed in strict accordance with institutional (UW and MPG) and national ethical and animal welfare guidelines. All of the animals were handled according to approved institutional animal care protocols (Permission No. B2/1068 for DS and IACUC protocol 2387-02 for DK).

Reviewing Editor

  1. Marianne Bronner, California Institute of Technology, United States

Publication history

  1. Received: August 6, 2017
  2. Accepted: December 20, 2017
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: December 28, 2017 (version 1)
  4. Version of Record published: January 18, 2018 (version 2)

Copyright

© 2017, Kimelman 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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