Uncorking gastrulation: the morphogenetic movement of bottle cells

Bottle cell-driven blastopore lip formation externally marks the initiation of gastrulation in amphibian embryos. The blastopore groove is formed when bottle cells undergo apical constriction and transform from cuboidal to flask-shaped. Apical constriction is sufficient to cause invagination and is a highly conserved mechanism for sheet bending and folding during morphogenesis; therefore, studying apical constriction in Xenopus bottle cells could provide valuable insight into this fundamental shape change. Initially described over a century ago, the dramatic shape change that occurs in bottle cells has long captured the imaginations of embryologists. However, only recently have investigators begun to examine the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying bottle cell apical constriction. Bottle cell apical constriction is driven by actomyosin contractility as well as by endocytosis of the apical membrane. The Nodal signaling pathway, Wnt5a, and Lgl1 are all required for bottle cell formation, but how they induce subcellular changes resulting in apical constriction remains to be elucidated. Xenopus bottle cells now represent an excellent vertebrate system for the dissection of how molecular inputs can drive cellular outputs, specifically the cell shape change of apical constriction.