Forces generated by cell intercalation tow epidermal sheets in mammalian tissue morphogenesis.

ABSTRACT: While gastrulation movements offer mechanistic paradigms for how collective cellular movements shape developing embryos, far less is known about coordinated cellular movements that occur later in development. Studying eyelid closure, we explore a case where an epithelium locally reshapes, expands, and moves over another epithelium. Live imaging, gene targeting, and cell-cycle inhibitors reveal that closure does not require overlying periderm, proliferation, or supracellular actin cable assembly. Laser ablation and quantitative analyses of tissue deformations further distinguish the mechanism from wound repair and dorsal closure. Rather, cell intercalations parallel to the tissue front locally compress it perpendicularly, pulling the surrounding epidermis along the closure axis. Functional

SUBMITTER: Heller E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4041280 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature