scholarly journals Transcriptional regulation of cell shape during organ morphogenesis

2018 ◽  
Vol 217 (9) ◽  
pp. 2987-3005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aravind Sivakumar ◽  
Natasza A. Kurpios

The emerging field of transcriptional regulation of cell shape changes aims to address the critical question of how gene expression programs produce a change in cell shape. Together with cell growth, division, and death, changes in cell shape are essential for organ morphogenesis. Whereas most studies of cell shape focus on posttranslational events involved in protein organization and distribution, cell shape changes can be genetically programmed. This review highlights the essential role of transcriptional regulation of cell shape during morphogenesis of the heart, lungs, gastrointestinal tract, and kidneys. We emphasize the evolutionary conservation of these processes across different model organisms and discuss perspectives on open questions and research avenues that may provide mechanistic insights toward understanding birth defects.

Genetics ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 148 (4) ◽  
pp. 1845-1863
Author(s):  
Susan R Halsell ◽  
Daniel P Kiehart

Abstract Drosophila is an ideal metazoan model system for analyzing the role of nonmuscle myosin-II (henceforth, myosin) during development. In Drosophila, myosin function is required for cytokinesis and morphogenesis driven by cell migration and/or cell shape changes during oogenesis, embryogenesis, larval development and pupal metamorphosis. The mechanisms that regulate myosin function and the supramolecular structures into which myosin incorporates have not been systematically characterized. The genetic screens described here identify genomic regions that uncover loci that facilitate myosin function. The nonmuscle myosin heavy chain is encoded by a single locus, zipper. Contiguous chromosomal deficiencies that represent approximately 70% of the euchromatic genome were screened for genetic interactions with two recessive lethal alleles of zipper in a second-site noncomplementation assay for the malformed phenotype. Malformation in the adult leg reflects aberrations in cell shape changes driven by myosin-based contraction during leg morphogenesis. Of the 158 deficiencies tested, 47 behaved as second-site noncomplementors of zipper. Two of the deficiencies are strong interactors, 17 are intermediate and 28 are weak. Finer genetic mapping reveals that mutations in cytoplasmic tropomyosin and viking (collagen IV) behave as second-site noncomplementors of zipper during leg morphogenesis and that zipper function requires a previously uncharacterized locus, E3.10/J3.8, for leg morphogenesis and viability.


2002 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 292-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enzo Ottaviani ◽  
Davide Malagoli ◽  
Alex Ferrari ◽  
Davide Tagliazucchi ◽  
Angela Conte ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Molly C Jud ◽  
Josh Lowry ◽  
Thalia Padilla ◽  
Erin Clifford ◽  
Yuqi Yang ◽  
...  

AbstractMorphogenesis involves coordinated cell migrations and cell shape changes that generate tissues and organs, and organize the body plan. Cell adhesion and the cytoskeleton are important for executing morphogenesis, but their regulation remains poorly understood. As genes required for embryonic morphogenesis may have earlier roles in development, temperature-sensitive embryonic-lethal mutations are useful tools for investigating this process. From a collection of ∼200 such Caenorhabditis elegans mutants, we have identified 17 that have highly penetrant embryonic morphogenesis defects after upshifts from the permissive to the restrictive temperature, just prior to the cell shape changes that mediate elongation of the ovoid embryo into a vermiform larva. Using whole genome sequencing, we identified the causal mutations in seven affected genes. These include three genes that have roles in producing the extracellular matrix, which is known to affect the morphogenesis of epithelial tissues in multicellular organisms: the rib-1 and rib-2 genes encode glycosyltransferases, and the emb-9 gene encodes a collagen subunit. We also used live imaging to characterize epidermal cell shape dynamics in one mutant, or1219ts, and observed cell elongation defects during dorsal intercalation and ventral enclosure that may be responsible for the body elongation defects. These results indicate that our screen has identified factors that influence morphogenesis and provides a platform for advancing our understanding of this fundamental biological process.


Glia ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 180-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ignacio Torres-Aleman ◽  
Maria Teresa Rejas ◽  
Sebastian Pons ◽  
Luis Miguel Garcia-Segura

2008 ◽  
Vol 182 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iiro Taneli Helenius ◽  
Greg J. Beitel

Tubular organs are essential for life, but lumen formation in nonepithelial tissues such as the vascular system or heart is poorly understood. Two studies in this issue (Medioni, C., M. Astier, M. Zmojdzian, K. Jagla, and M. Sémériva. 2008. J. Cell Biol. 182:249–261; Santiago-Martínez, E., N.H. Soplop, R. Patel, and S.G. Kramer. 2008. J. Cell Biol. 182:241–248) reveal unexpected roles for the Slit–Robo signaling system during Drosophila melanogaster heart morphogenesis. In cardioblasts, Slit and Robo modulate the cell shape changes and domains of E-cadherin–based adhesion that drive lumen formation. Furthermore, in contrast to the well-known paracrine role of Slit and Robo in guiding cell migrations, here Slit and Robo may act by autocrine signaling. In addition, the two groups demonstrate that heart lumen formation is even more distinct from typical epithelial tubulogenesis mechanisms because the heart lumen is bounded by membrane surfaces that have basal rather than apical attributes. As the D. melanogaster cardioblasts are thought to have significant evolutionary similarity to vertebrate endothelial and cardiac lineages, these findings are likely to provide insights into mechanisms of vertebrate heart and vascular morphogenesis.


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