Dynamics of anterior–posterior axis formation in the developing mouse embryo
Abstract
The development of an anterior–posterior (AP) polarity is a crucial process that in the mouse has been very difficult to analyse, because it takes place as the embryo implants within the mother. To overcome this obstacle, we have established an in-vitro culture system that allows us to follow the step-wise development of anterior visceral endoderm (AVE), critical for establishing AP polarity. Here we use this system to show that the AVE originates in the implanting blastocyst, but that additional cells subsequently acquire AVE characteristics. These 'older' and 'younger' AVE domains coalesce as the egg cylinder emerges from the blastocyst structure. Importantly, we show that AVE migration is led by cells expressing the highest levels of AVE marker, highlighting that asymmetry within the AVE domain dictates the direction of its migration. Ablation of such leading cells prevents AVE migration, suggesting that these cells are important for correct establishment of the AP axis.
Additional Information
© 2012 Macmillan Publishers Limited. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ Received 20 October 2011. Accepted 09 January 2012. Published 14 February 2012. We are grateful to Professor David Glover for his comments on the manuscript, Professor Azim Surani and Caroline Lee for kindly providing Oct4ΔPE-GFP mice, and Harry Leitch for providing the dsRed ES cells. F. B. holds a Newton International Fellowship from the Royal Society, which supported this work. This work was supported by a Wellcome Trust Senior Fellowship to M. Z. G. Samantha A. Morris, Seema Grewal & Florencia Barrios: These authors contributed equally to this work. Author Contributions: S. A. M. performed experiments on AVE migration, analysed data and assisted in the interpretation of these results. S. G. developed the embryo culture method, and together with F. B., cultured and experimented on the embryos from pre- to post-implantation stages and assisted in the interpretation of the results. L. B., M. A. and K. M. S. designed substrates for the embryo culture, and S. N. P. built the gels and demonstrated their applicability. K. M. S. assisted in preparing the manuscript. M. Z. G. designed the experiments, interpreted the results and wrote the manuscript. The authors declare no competing financial interests.Attached Files
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Supplemental Material - ncomms1671-s1.pdf
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Additional details
- PMCID
- PMC3293425
- Eprint ID
- 94761
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20190417-152710020
- Royal Society
- Wellcome Trust
- Created
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2019-04-17Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-16Created from EPrint's last_modified field