Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

Cells communicate to navigate a crowded embryo

Share
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Flipboard
Print
Email
Drosophila egg chamber rotates as it develops into an egg/Barlan, et al, U Chicago

From ScienceDaily:

When an individual cell needs to move somewhere, it manages just fine on its own. It extends protrusions from its leading edge and retracts the trailing edge to scoot itself along, without having to worry about what the other cells around it are doing. But when cells are joined together in a sheet of tissue, or epithelium, they have to coordinate their movements with their neighbors. It’s like walking by yourself versus navigating a crowded room. To push through the crowd, you have to communicate with others by talking (“Pardon me”) or tapping them on the shoulder. Cells do the same thing, but instead of verbal cues and hand gestures, they use proteins to signal to each other.

This kind of coordinated migration is important during embryonic development when cells migrate to form organs, during healing when they move to close a wound, and unfortunately during the spread of many cancers. Scientists already knew about some of the proteins involved in this process, but research from the University of Chicago has identified a new signaling system that epithelial cells use to coordinate their individual movements and efficiently move tissues. Paper. (paywall) – Kari Barlan, Maureen Cetera, Sally Horne-Badovinac. Fat2 and Lar Define a Basally Localized Planar Signaling System Controlling Collective Cell Migration. Developmental Cell, 2017; 40 (5): 467 DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2017.02.003 More.

Yet another new system that just somehow evolved, coordinated with dozens of others.

See also: Cells poll their neighbours before moving around

Follow UD News at Twitter!

Comments
What exactly determines the start and end of Fat2/Lar signaling?Dionisio
March 24, 2017
March
03
Mar
24
24
2017
03:22 AM
3
03
22
AM
PDT
Interesting abstract:
Collective migration of epithelial cells underlies diverse tissue-remodeling events, but the mechanisms that coordinate individual cell migratory behaviors for collective movement are largely unknown. Studying the Drosophila follicular epithelium, we show that the cadherin Fat2 and the receptor tyrosine phosphatase Lar function in a planar signaling system that coordinates leading and trailing edge dynamics between neighboring cells. Fat2 signals from each cell's trailing edge to induce leading edge protrusions in the cell behind, in part by stabilizing Lar's localization in these cells. Conversely, Lar signals from each cell's leading edge to stimulate trailing edge retraction in the cell ahead. Fat2/Lar signaling is similar to planar cell polarity signaling in terms of sub-cellular protein localization; however, Fat2/Lar signaling mediates short-range communication between neighboring cells instead of transmitting long-range information across a tissue. This work defines a key mechanism promoting epithelial migration and establishes a different paradigm for planar cell-cell signaling.
Dionisio
March 24, 2017
March
03
Mar
24
24
2017
03:16 AM
3
03
16
AM
PDT
"When an individual cell needs to move somewhere [...]"
Hmm... interesting. Do cells ever feel need? Do they have reasons to move? Do they move for a purpose?Dionisio
March 24, 2017
March
03
Mar
24
24
2017
12:13 AM
12
12
13
AM
PDT

Leave a Reply