Wnt-regulated Dynamics of Positional Information in Zebrafish Somitogenesis

Overview

Journal Development

Specialty Biology

Date 2014 Mar 6

PMID 24595291

Citations 30

Authors

Lola Bajard

Luis G Morelli

Saul Ares

Jacques Pecreaux

Frank Julicher

Andrew C Oates

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

How signaling gradients supply positional information in a field of moving cells is an unsolved question in patterning and morphogenesis. Here, we ask how a Wnt signaling gradient regulates the dynamics of a wavefront of cellular change in a flow of cells during somitogenesis. Using time-controlled perturbations of Wnt signaling in the zebrafish embryo, we changed segment length without altering the rate of somite formation or embryonic elongation. This result implies specific Wnt regulation of the wavefront velocity. The observed Wnt signaling gradient dynamics and timing of downstream events support a model for wavefront regulation in which cell flow plays a dominant role in transporting positional information.

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