Furry regulates convergent forces during gastrulation.

CIRIO, MARIA CECILIA

Workshop; Workshop EMBO ?Bridging cell and tissue nechanics to fate specification and development; 2019

EMBO

Furry regulates convergent forces during gastrulationFurry (Fry) gene encodes an evolutionarily conserved protein that participates a wide variety of cellular functions including 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 movements.To study the role of Fry during gastrulation we performed loss of function experiments in Xenopus embryos using a specific morpholino oligonucleotide. Dorsal depletion of Fry produces blastopore closure (BC) defects and chordamesoderm elongation impairment. Since convergent extension (CE) of the dorsal mesoderm is one of the major contributors to the BC and extension of the body axis, we evaluated this morphogenetic behavior in dorsal gastrula explants. As expected, explants from fry-depleted embryos do not extend, demonstrating that Fry is involved in CE. Interestingly, ventral depletion of Fry, also causes gastrulation defects suggesting that Fry is important for general convergent forces during gastrulation. Moreover, dorsal expression of a short version of Fry, FD+LZ, does not perturb CE but compromises gastrulation indicating that Fry function is critical for normal embryonic cell movements. Finally, we studied individual cell migration in fry-depleted embryos using ?light-sheet? microscopy. These experiments show that the lack of Fry reduces instantaneous speed and trajectory persistence of dorsal mesoderm cell during BC. Together, our results point to an important role of Fry in the correct execution of morphogenetic movements, and particularly dorsal mesoderm CE behavior. Nevertheless, future experiments are required to elucidate the cellular and molecular mechanisms in which Fry is involved.