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.
Article and author information
Author details
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
- Marianne Bronner, California Institute of Technology, United States
Publication history
- Received: August 6, 2017
- Accepted: December 20, 2017
- Accepted Manuscript published: December 28, 2017 (version 1)
- 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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