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Blastomere Explants to Test for Cell Fate Commitment During Embryonic Development

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Dynamic determinations: patterning the cell behaviours that close the amphibian blastopore.

Ray Keller¹, David Shook

¹Department of Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA. rek3k@virginia.edu

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences

|January 15, 2008

Summary

Amphibian gastrulation involves coordinated cell behaviors like intercalation and epithelial-mesenchymal transition. These processes, patterned spatially and temporally, generate forces crucial for blastopore closure and embryonic development.

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Area of Science:

Developmental Biology
Cell Biology
Biophysics

Background:

Blastopore closure is a critical event in amphibian gastrulation, essential for establishing the body plan.
Cellular behaviors, including mediolateral intercalation and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), are known contributors to this process.
The precise interplay and spatial-temporal patterning of these behaviors remain areas of active investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

To review and synthesize the dynamic patterns of cell behaviors driving blastopore closure in amphibians.
To elucidate how the progressive nature and geometric arrangement of these behaviors generate conserved biomechanical forces.
To emphasize the importance of context, connectivity, and patterning in determining morphogenetic outcomes.

Main Methods:

Review of existing literature on amphibian gastrulation and cell behaviors.
Analysis of conserved patterns of circumblastoporal hoop stresses across different amphibian species.
Focus on the spatial and temporal dynamics of cell intercalation and EMT.

Main Results:

Diverse cell behaviors (intercalation, EMT) are employed across amphibian species to achieve blastopore closure.
These behaviors are expressed in conserved, progressively patterned geometries along body axes.
This ordered expression generates similar patterns of circumblastoporal hoop stresses, highlighting biomechanical principles.
The specificity of morphogenetic output depends on the patterned expression of cell behaviors, not just their nature.

Conclusions:

The biomechanics of blastopore closure are driven by the spatially and temporally patterned expression of cell behaviors.
Understanding gastrulation requires analyzing the dynamic, patterned nature of cell behaviors at high resolution.
Conserved morphogenetic outcomes arise from similar functional geometries of cell behavior, despite variations in underlying mechanisms.