Surrounding tissues canalize motile cardiopharyngeal progenitors towards collective polarity and directed migration.

ABSTRACT: Collectively migrating cells maintain group polarity and interpret external cues to reach their destination. The cardiogenic progenitors (also known as trunk ventral cells, TVCs) of the ascidian Ciona intestinalis provide a simple chordate model with which to study collective migration. Bilateral pairs of associated TVCs undergo a stereotyped polarized migration away from the tail towards the ventral trunk, arguably constituting the simplest possible example of directed collective migration. To identify tissues contributing to TVC polarity and migration, we quantified the contact between TVCs and surrounding tissues, and blocked the secretory pathway in a tissue-specific manner. Even though TVCs normally migrate as an invariably determined leader-trailer polarized pair of adherent cells, t

SUBMITTER: Gline S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4303000 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature