X-ray phase-contrast in vivo microtomography probes new aspects of Xenopus gastrulation.

ABSTRACT: An ambitious goal in biology is to understand the behaviour of cells during development by imaging-in vivo and with subcellular resolution-changes of the embryonic structure. Important morphogenetic movements occur throughout embryogenesis, but in particular during gastrulation when a series of dramatic, coordinated cell movements drives the reorganization of a simple ball or sheet of cells into a complex multi-layered organism. In Xenopus laevis, the South African clawed frog and also in zebrafish, cell and tissue movements have been studied in explants, in fixed embryos, in vivo using fluorescence microscopy or microscopic magnetic resonance imaging. None of these methods allows cell behaviours to be observed with micrometre-scale resolution throughout the optically opaque, living embryo

SUBMITTER: Moosmann J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4220246 | biostudies-literature | 2013 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature