Specialized filopodia direct long-range transport of SHH during vertebrate tissue patterning.

ABSTRACT: The ability of signalling proteins to traverse tissues containing tightly packed cells is of fundamental importance for cell specification and tissue development; however, how this is achieved at a cellular level remains poorly understood. For more than a century, the vertebrate limb bud has served as a model for studying cell signalling during embryonic development. Here we optimize single-cell real-time imaging to delineate the cellular mechanisms for how signalling proteins, such as sonic hedgehog (SHH), that possess membrane-bound covalent lipid modifications traverse long distances within the vertebrate limb bud in vivo. By directly imaging SHH ligand production under native regulatory control in chick (Gallus gallus) embryos, our findings show that SHH is unexpectedly produced in the

SUBMITTER: Sanders TA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4197975 | biostudies-literature | 2013 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature