Gastrulation It is not birth, marriage or death, but gastrulation, which is truly the most important event in your life Lewis Wolpert
17 hours in the life of a zebrafish embryo
Blastula Stages 1- cell2-cell 4-cell 8-cell 32-cell 512-cell 1000-cell Transcription begins sphere dome 30% epiboly 4 2/3 hrs
Gastrula Stages 50% germ ring shield 75%90% bud 10 hr
Somitogenesis 3-somite 6-somite18-somite 26-somite 22 hr
Zebrafish development
Early development ?
Three germ layers Side view top view Skin & nervous system Muscle & cardiovascular Gut and liver Animal pole Vegetal pole
Gastrulation simplified
Involution Mesoderm & endoderm inside Ectoderm outside
Dorsal-Ventral Side view top view dorsal ventral
Involuting cell movements during gastrulation
Convergence-Extension convergence extension
Convergence-Extension
Convergence-extension
Cell fates Dorsal view Cross section dorsal
Convergence-extension
Slow dorsal migration ConvergenceExtension Convergence-extension cell movements
Slow dorsal migration Fast dorsal migration ConvergenceExtension Convergence-extension cell movements
Slow dorsal migration Fast dorsal migration ConvergenceExtension Packing, inhibition of protrusions Convergence-extension cell movements
Slow dorsal migration Fast dorsal migration Packing, inhibition of protrusions Intercalation ConvergenceExtension Convergence-extension cell movements
Summary Formation of germ layers Convergence- extension Formation of tissue boundaries Cleavage
Early Development movies Histone 2BGFP Made RNA Injected embryos at the 1-cell stage Imaged with Digital Scanned Laser Light Sheet Fluorescence Microscopy (capture whole embryo image every 60-90s) Produced a “digital embryo”
512-cell Divisions symmetric prior to 512-cell Divisions asymmetric after 512-cell Radial waves just after 512-cell Early Development Movies
Animal viewVegetal view dorsal
Early Development Movies Slow-moving nucleus Fast moving nucleus
Early Development Movies dorsal
Early Development Movies
Two major Questions How are the germ layers established? What determines polarity?
Signaling from the YSL
Nodal mutant wild-type sqt;cyc -/- No endoderm No head & trunk mesoderm
Normally ~1550 cells internalize; in MZoep ~60 internalize
Germ layer patterning YSL signal Sqt and Cyc Endoderm Head and Trunk Mesoderm Tail mesoderm
Dorsal-ventral patterning Shield (Organizer)
Bozozok
The Organizer Shield (Organizer)
Bmp promotes ventral fates Organizer signals are BMP binding factors: Noggin, Chordin Bmp signals promote ventral fates (skin, ventral mesoderm) and oppose dorsal fates (neural, dorsal mesoderm)
Mutants in the dorsal-ventral pathway Snailhouse (snh) = bmp7 mutant Chordino (din) = chordin mutant
Bmp regulates cell movement High Bmp Low Bmp
Summary