Spatiotemporal Analysis of a Glycolytic Activity Gradient Linked to Mouse Embryo Mesoderm Development

Overview

Journal Dev Cell

Publisher Cell Press

Specialties Cell Biology
Reproductive Medicine

Date 2017 Mar 2

PMID 28245920

Citations 68

Authors

Vinay Bulusu

Nicole Prior

Marteinn T Snaebjornsson

Andreas Kuehne

Katharina F Sonnen

Jana Kress

Frank Stein

Carsten Schultz

Uwe Sauer

Alexander Aulehla

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

How metabolism is rewired during embryonic development is still largely unknown, as it remains a major technical challenge to resolve metabolic activities or metabolite levels with spatiotemporal resolution. Here, we investigated metabolic changes during development of organogenesis-stage mouse embryos, focusing on the presomitic mesoderm (PSM). We measured glycolytic labeling kinetics from C-glucose tracing experiments and detected elevated glycolysis in the posterior, more undifferentiated PSM. We found evidence that the spatial metabolic differences are functionally relevant during PSM development. To enable real-time quantification of a glycolytic metabolite with spatiotemporal resolution, we generated a pyruvate FRET-sensor reporter mouse line. We revealed dynamic changes in cytosolic pyruvate levels as cells transit toward a more anterior PSM state. Combined, our approach identifies a gradient of glycolytic activity across the PSM, and we provide evidence that these spatiotemporal metabolic changes are intrinsically linked to PSM development and differentiation.

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