title: Live imaging fluorescent proteins in early mouse embryos.
abstract: Mouse embryonic development comprises highly dynamic and coordinated events that drive key cell lineage specification and morphogenetic events. These processes involve cellular behaviors including proliferation, migration, apoptosis, and differentiation, each of which is regulated both spatially and temporally. Live imaging of developing embryos provides an essential tool to investigate these coordinated processes in three-dimensional space over time. For this purpose, the development and application of genetically encoded fluorescent protein (FP) reporters has accelerated over the past decade allowing for the high-resolution visualization of developmental progression. Ongoing efforts are aimed at generating improved reporters, where spectrally distinct as well as novel FPs whose optical properties can be photomodulated, are exploited for live imaging of mouse embryos. Moreover, subcellular tags in combination with using FPs allow for the visualization of multiple subcellular characteristics, such as cell position and cell morphology, in living embryos. Here, we review recent advances in the application of FPs for live imaging in the early mouse embryo, as well as some of the methods used for ex utero embryo development that facilitate on-stage time-lapse specimen visualization.
authors.affiliation: Developmental Biology Program, Sloan-Kettering Institute, New York, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Panagiotis
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Xenopoulos
authors.forename: Sonja
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nowotschin
authors.forename: Anna-Katerina
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Hadjantonakis
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian / Q000196:embryology* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D008164:Luminescent Proteins / Q000032:analysis* / Q000235:genetics; D051379:Mice / Q000196:embryology*; D008853:Microscopy / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D009924:Organ Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D008164:Luminescent Proteins; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins