Rho1 activation recapitulates early gastrulation events in the ventral, but not dorsal, epithelium of Drosophila embryos
- University of Chicago, United States
Abstract
Ventral furrow formation, the first step in Drosophila gastrulation, is a well-studied example of tissue morphogenesis. Rho1 is highly active in a subset of ventral cells and is required for this morphogenetic event. However, it is unclear whether spatially patterned Rho1 activity alone is sufficient to recapitulate all aspects of this morphogenetic event, including anisotropic apical constriction and coordinated cell movements. Here, using an optogenetic probe that rapidly and robustly activates Rho1 in Drosophila tissues, we show that Rho1 activity induces ectopic deformations in the dorsal and ventral epithelia of Drosophila embryos. These perturbations reveal substantial differences in how ventral and dorsal cells, both within and outside the zone of Rho1 activation, respond to spatially and temporally identical patterns of Rho1 activation. Our results demonstrate that an asymmetric zone of Rho1 activity is not sufficient to recapitulate ventral furrow formation and reveal that additional, ventral-specific factors contribute to the cell- and tissue-level behaviors that emerge during ventral furrow formation.
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All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files.
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Funding
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R35GM12709)
- Michael Glotzer
University of Chicago
- Michael Glotzer
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R01GM085087)
- Michael Glotzer
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (R01NS034783)
- Richard G Fehon
National Science Foundation (DGE-1144082)
- Ashley Rich
National Science Foundation (DGE-1746045)
- Ashley Rich
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Copyright
© 2020, Rich 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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Rho1 activation recapitulates early gastrulation events in the ventral, but not dorsal, epithelium of Drosophila embryos
eLife 9:e56893.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.56893
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