Martinez-Arias Lab
Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge
Ana Mateus
PhD student
amam3@cam.ac.ukDepartment of Genetics,
Downing Street, Cambridge
CB2 3EH,England
Telephone: +44 1223 766595
Fax: +44 1223 333992
The epithelial activities associated with dorsal closure can be arranged into a series of events: firstly, different fates are attributed to different populations of cells by transcription factors; secondly, extracellular signals trigger a specific morphogenetic event in a particular region, and finally the cells execute the "morphogenetic program" in a coordinated manner by remodelling the cytoskeleton, membrane surface and adhesive properties.
Although regulation of membrane dynamics was shown to be important in some developing epithelia, its role in dorsal closure was never assessed. Cell elongation, membrane polarization in the epidermal cells and adhesion remodelling that occur during this process are likely to rely on a coordinated organization of several components of the trafficking machinery. I am using immunostainings and time-lapse microscopy in order to unravel the role that traffic plays in the organization and function of the epidermal cells.
Wild type embryo at the zippering stage stained for DE-cadherin (red), Rab11 (green) and Discs large (blue).