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FRAZZLED PLAYS A ROLE IN THE FORMATION OF CELL DENSITY PATTERNS IN THE EARLY DROSOPHILA EMBRYO

Schweickart, Robert Allen
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1545181299374722

Abstract Details

2018, Master of Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, Biology.
The Drosophila blastoderm embryo is patterned by morphogens, molecules that inform cells to adopt specific fates in a threshold-dependent fashion. The morphogen Bicoid subdivides the antero-posterior axis into head, thorax and abdomen, whereas the morphogens Dorsal/NFk-B and Decapentaplegic/BMP-4 regulate cell fates along the dorso-ventral axis and subdivide the embryo into three germ layers (mesoderm, neuroectoderm and ectoderm). Together, the concentration gradients produced by these morphogens form a coordinate system along the main embryonic axes and cell fate is influenced depending on where a cell falls inside this system. For several years, the blastoderm was considered to be a static stage due to the lack of mitotic divisions or any major gastrulation movements. However, recent work demonstrated that a stereotyped movement of cells towards the dorsal midline from the lateral regions and the poles of the embryo takes place. As a result, by the end of the blastoderm stage, there is a higher density of cells in the dorsal region of the embryo and a lower density of cells in the ventral region. Results from our lab and others suggest that Decapentaplegic and Dorsal are required for these stereotyped cell movements. In this work, we tested whether the candidate gene frazzled (fra) we identified in a bioinformatics screening is a downstream regulator responsible for directing cells towards the dorsal region of the embryo. fra encodes a transmembrane receptor previously implicated in glial cell migration during late embryonic stages. The function of fra in the early blastoderm is unknown. In this work, we show that in embryos mutant for fra, cells lose their migration direction towards the dorsal midline and display an increased density within the ventral side compared to wild type embryos. We have also observed that FRA protein is located on the dorsal side of the Drosophila embryo and is localized on the apical surface of the cell vertices. Our findings suggest that fra might affect cell migration by regulating cell-cell interactions during cellularization.
Claudia Mizutani (Advisor)
Sarah Diamond (Committee Chair)
Dianne Kube (Committee Member)
Emmitt Jolly (Committee Member)
53 p.
Biology; Developmental Biology; Genetics
Drosophila; Development; Frazzled; Morphogen; French Flag Model; Lewis Wolpert; Drosophila melanogaster; blastoderm; embryo; cellularization; Gene expression; Cell Fate; Toll Pathway; BMP Pathway; Cell Differentiation

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Citations

  • Schweickart, R. A. (2018). FRAZZLED PLAYS A ROLE IN THE FORMATION OF CELL DENSITY PATTERNS IN THE EARLY DROSOPHILA EMBRYO [Master's thesis, Case Western Reserve University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1545181299374722

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Schweickart, Robert. FRAZZLED PLAYS A ROLE IN THE FORMATION OF CELL DENSITY PATTERNS IN THE EARLY DROSOPHILA EMBRYO. 2018. Case Western Reserve University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1545181299374722.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Schweickart, Robert. "FRAZZLED PLAYS A ROLE IN THE FORMATION OF CELL DENSITY PATTERNS IN THE EARLY DROSOPHILA EMBRYO." Master's thesis, Case Western Reserve University, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1545181299374722

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies and OhioLINK.