Square Cell Packing in the Drosophila Embryo through Spatiotemporally Regulated EGF Receptor Signaling.
Cells display dynamic and diverse morphologies during development, but the strategies by which differentiated tissues achieve precise shapes and patterns are not well understood. Here we identify a developmental program that generates a highly ordered square cell grid in the Drosophila embryo through sequential and spatially regulated cell alignment, oriented cell division, and apicobasal cell elongation. The basic leucine zipper transcriptional regulator Cnc is necessary and sufficient to produce a square cell grid in the presence of a midline signal provided by the EGF receptor ligand Spitz. Spitz orients cell divisions through a Pins/LGN-dependent spindle-positioning mechanism and controls cell shape and alignment through a transcriptional pathway that requires the Pointed ETS domain protein. These results identify a strategy for producing ordered square cell packing configurations in epithelia and reveal a molecular mechanism by which organized tissue structure is generated through spatiotemporally regulated responses to EGF receptor activation.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Developmental Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, New York, NY 10065, USA.
Masako
M
Tamada
Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Developmental Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, New York, NY 10065, USA. Electronic address: zallenj@mskcc.org.
Jennifer A
JA
Zallen
D000818:Animals; D002455:Cell Division / Q000235:genetics; D016764:Cell Polarity / Q000235:genetics; D048430:Cell Shape / Q000235:genetics; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000196:embryology / Q000235:genetics*; D047108:Embryonic Development; D004815:Epidermal Growth Factor / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000166:cytology; D066246:ErbB Receptors / Q000235:genetics*; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D009024:Morphogenesis / Q000235:genetics*; D012097:Repressor Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000235:genetics
D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D012097:Repressor Proteins; C116463:cnc protein, Drosophila; C076026:spi protein, Drosophila; D004815:Epidermal Growth Factor; D066246:ErbB Receptors
EGF receptor; intercalation; junctional remodeling; myosin II; oriented cell division; planar polarity