RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Self-organised symmetry breaking in zebrafish reveals feedback from morphogenesis to pattern formation
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 769257
DO 10.1101/769257
A1 Vikas Trivedi
A1 Timothy Fulton
A1 Andrea Attardi
A1 Kerim Anlas
A1 Chaitanya Dingare
A1 Alfonso Martinez-Arias
A1 Benjamin Steventon
YR 2019
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/09/14/769257.abstract
AB A fundamental question in developmental biology is how the early embryo breaks initial symmetry to establish the spatial coordinate system later important for the organisation of the embryonic body plan. In zebrafish, this is thought to depend on the inheritance of maternal mRNAs [1–3], cortical rotation to generate a dorsal pole of beta-catenin activity [4–8] and the release of Nodal signals from the yolk syncytial layer (YSL) [9–12]. Recent work aggregating mouse embryonic stem cells has shown that symmetry breaking can occur in the absence of extra-embryonic tissue [19,20]. To test whether this is also true in zebrafish, we separated embryonic cells from the yolk and allowed them to develop as aggregates. These aggregates break symmetry autonomously to form elongated structures with an anterior-posterior pattern. Extensive cell mixing shows that any pre-existing asymmetry is lost prior to the breaking morphological symmetry, revealing that the maternal pre-pattern is not strictly required for early embryo patterning. Following early signalling events after isolation of embryonic cells reveals that a pole of Nodal activity precedes and is required for elongation. The blocking of PCP-dependent convergence and extension movements disrupts the establishment of opposing poles of BMP and Wnt/TCF activity and the patterning of anterior-posterior neural tissue. These results lead us to suggest that convergence and extension plays a causal role in the establishment of morphogen gradients and pattern formation during zebrafish gastrulation.