Sunday September 23, 2012 11:45 - 12:15 @ Rhodes 7
Collective cell migration and directionality
Abstract:
Collective cell migration has become appreciated as a major mode of cell migration in vivo, notably in tissue vascularization, wound healing and many cases of developmental morphogenesis, as well as during invasion and dissemination of tumors, specifically carcinomas. While some features of collective migration are shared with individual cell migration, others are unique such as anisotropic, directive effects of the neighboring migratory cells (be they signaling or physical effects) and the possibility of differences between cells of the collective. The Rorth lab uses border cells as a model to study directed, collective migration in vivo. Border cells are a small group of cells that, during Drosophila oogenesis, delaminate from an epithelium, invade the underlying tissue and migrate directionally. Border cells migrate on and between other cells, and require the cell-cell adhesion molecule E-cadherin to do so. Live imaging allows proper analysis of the cell biology and dynamics of this event. We previously found that border cells use two receptors tyrosine kinases, PVR and EGFR, to detect guidance cues in the tissue. Processing of guidance information appears to involve both localized signaling within each cell, the spatial organization of which is dependent on cluster topology as well as external input, and collective signal interpretation based on guidance-induced differences in cell states. I will discuss our latest results regarding the dynamics of guidance signaling as well analysis of the cellular mechanism allowing this cell group to invade and migrate through another tissue.