Cell-state transitions and collective cell movement generate an endoderm-like region in gastruloids
- Aix Marseille University, CNRS, France
- University of Copenhagen, Denmark
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain
Abstract
Shaping the animal body plan is a complex process that involves the spatial organization and patterning of the different germ layers. Recent advances in live imaging have started to unravel the cellular choreography underlying this process in mammals, however, the sequence of events transforming an unpatterned cell ensemble into structured territories is largely unknown. Here, using gastruloids -3D aggregates of mouse embryonic stem cells- we study the formation of one of the three germ layers, the endoderm. We show that the endoderm is generated from an epiblast-like homogeneous state by a three-step mechanism: (i) a loss of E-cadherin mediated contacts in parts of the aggregate leading to the appearance of islands of E-cadherin expressing cells surrounded by cells devoid of E-cadherin, (ii) a separation of these two populations with islands of E-cadherin expressing cells flowing toward the aggregate tip, and (iii) their differentiation into an endoderm population. During the flow, the islands of E-cadherin expressing cells are surrounded by cells expressing T-Brachyury, reminiscent of the process occurring at the primitive streak. Consistent with recent in vivo observations, the endoderm formation in the gastruloids does not require an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, but rather a maintenance of an epithelial state for a subset of cells coupled with fragmentation of E-cadherin contacts in the vicinity, and a sorting process. Our data emphasize the role of signaling and tissue flows in the establishment of the body plan.
Data availability
All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files. The source data and the scripts at https://zenodo.org/record/5727050
Article and author information
Author details
Pierre-François Lenne
Funding
Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-19-CE13-0022)
- Pierre-François Lenne
Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-11-LABX-0054)
- Ali Hashmi
- Pierre-François Lenne
Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-16-CONV-0001)
- Pierre-François Lenne
Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-10-INBS-04)
- Sham Tlili
- Pierre-François Lenne
Leverhulme Trust (VP2-2015-022)
- Pierre-François Lenne
Leverhulme Trust (RPG- 2018-356)
- Pierre-François Lenne
Lundbeckfonden (R198-2015-412)
- Joshua M Brickman
Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research (NNF21CC0073729)
- Joshua M Brickman
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Reviewing Editor
- Isabelle Migeotte, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Version history
- Preprint posted: May 24, 2020 (view preprint)
- Received: May 27, 2020
- Accepted: April 8, 2022
- Accepted Manuscript published: April 11, 2022 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: April 22, 2022 (version 2)
Copyright
© 2022, Hashmi 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.
Metrics
-
- 4,053
- Page views
-
- 547
- Downloads
-
- 9
- Citations
Article citation count generated by polling the highest count across the following sources: Crossref, PubMed Central, Scopus.
Download links
A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.
Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)
Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)
Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)
Cell-state transitions and collective cell movement generate an endoderm-like region in gastruloids
eLife 11:e59371.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.59371
Further reading
-
- Developmental Biology
- Neuroscience
Development of the nervous system depends on signaling centers – specialized cellular populations that produce secreted molecules to regulate neurogenesis in the neighboring neuroepithelium. In some cases, signaling center cells also differentiate to produce key types of neurons. The formation of a signaling center involves its induction, the maintenance of expression of its secreted molecules, and cell differentiation and migration events. How these distinct processes are coordinated during signaling center development remains unknown. By performing studies in mice, we show that Lmx1a acts as a master regulator to orchestrate the formation and function of the cortical hem (CH), a critical signaling center that controls hippocampus development. Lmx1a co-regulates CH induction, its Wnt signaling, and the differentiation and migration of CH-derived Cajal–Retzius neurons. Combining RNAseq, genetic, and rescue experiments, we identified major downstream genes that mediate distinct Lmx1a-dependent processes. Our work revealed that signaling centers in the mammalian brain employ master regulatory genes and established a framework for analyzing signaling center development.
-
- Developmental Biology
- Evolutionary Biology
Cephalochordates and tunicates represent the only two groups of invertebrate chordates, and extant cephalochordates – commonly known as amphioxus or lancelets – are considered the best proxy for the chordate ancestor, from which they split around 520 million years ago. Amphioxus has been an important organism in the fields of zoology and embryology since the 18th century, and the morphological and genomic simplicity of cephalochordates (compared to vertebrates) makes amphioxus an attractive model for studying chordate biology at the cellular and molecular levels. Here we describe the life cycle of amphioxus, and discuss the natural histories and habitats of the different species of amphioxus. We also describe their use as laboratory animal models, and discuss the techniques that have been developed to study different aspects of amphioxus.
