A novel role of Furry in early vertebrate development: regulation of convergent forces during gastrulation

AILEN CERVINO; CECILIA CIRIO

Santiago de Chile

Congreso; Bridging cell and tissue mechanics to fate specification in development; 2019

EMBO

Furry (Fry) gene encodes a large, evolutionarily conserved protein with a wide variety of cellular functions most associated in morphogenesis, cell-polarization and cell division. In Xenopus, loss of Fry function results in shortened axis and reduction of anterior head structures, reminiscent of defective gastrulation cell movements. Gastrulation is a key embryonic event during which major cell and tissue movements remodel the embryo and shape the basic body plan. To study the implication of Fry during gastrulation we performed loss of function experiments using a specific morpholino in Xenopus embryos. Dorsal depletion of Fry produces blastopore closure (BC) retardation and chordamesoderm elongation impairment, gauged by not expression domain. Since convergent-extension (CE) movement conducted by dorsal mesoderm extends the body axis and aid BC, we evaluated this morphogenetic behavior by performing dorsal gastrula explants. As expected, dorsal explants from fry-depleted embryos do not extend, demonstrating Fry is involved in CE. Interestingly, ventral depletion of Fry, which has no influence in CE, also causes gastrulation defects suggesting that Fry is important for general convergent forces during gastrulation. Moreover, dorsal expression of a short version of Fry called FD+LZ does not perturb CE but compromises gastrulation. Finally, we studied individual cell migration in fry-depleted embryos using ?light-sheet? microscopy. Our preliminary data shows that the lack of Fry reduces instantaneous speed and trajectory persistence of dorsal mesoderm cell during BC. Together, our results suggest that Fry has an important role in the correct execution of morphogenetic movements, especially dorsal mesoderm CE behavior. Nevertheless, future experiments are required to elucidate the cellular and molecular mechanisms in which Fry is involved .