title: In vivo modulation of morphogenetic movements in Drosophila embryos with femtosecond laser pulses.
abstract: The complex biomechanical events associated with embryo development are investigated in vivo, by using femtosecond laser pulse-induced ablation combined with multimodal nonlinear microscopy. We demonstrate controlled intravital ablations preserving local cytoskeleton dynamics and resulting in the modulation of specific morphogenetic movements in nonmutant Drosophila embryos. A quantitative description of complex movements is obtained both in GFP-expressing systems by using whole-embryo two-photon microscopy and in unlabeled nontransgenic embryos by using third harmonic generation microscopy. This methodology provides insight into the issue of mechano-sensitive gene expression by revealing the correlation of in vivo tissue deformation patterns with Twist protein expression in stomodeal cells at gastrulation.
authors.affiliation: Mechanics and Genetics of Developmental Embryology, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Unité Mixte de Recherche 168, Curie Institute, 11 Rue Pierre et Marie Curie, F-75005 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Willy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Supatto
authors.forename: Delphine
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Débarre
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Moulia
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Brouzés
authors.forename: Jean-Louis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Emmanuel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Farge
authors.forename: Emmanuel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Beaurepaire
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002465:Cell Movement; D003599:Cytoskeleton / Q000502:physiology; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000196:embryology*; D047108:Embryonic Development; D007834:Lasers; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D009024:Morphogenesis