Genetische Kontrolle der mesodermalen Zellwanderung in der Embryogenese von Drosophila

细胞迁移在形态发生过程中起着重要作用。在果蝇中，中胚层细胞以定向方式迁移到原肠胚中的特定区域。这种迁移的开始需要成纤维细胞生长因子受体途径的活性。这个研究项目的目标是确定这种指导细胞迁移的信号是如何转化为移动细胞的行为变化的。由于中胚层迁移过程中的细胞行为尚未被详细描述，我们将首先使用活的和固定的胚胎来分析细胞形态和迁移过程中事件的时间安排。为了分析细胞行为的变化，我们将使用从野生型和突变胚胎中获得的胚胎细胞培养。我们已经确定了在中胚层细胞迁移中显示缺陷的突变体。这将使我们能够根据突变胚胎的细胞表型来检查各自基因的功能。预计完成的果蝇基因组计划将允许对我们的突变体进行直接的分子分析。我们预计，有趣的基因将在生物体中保守，因此，我们的基因分析与细胞生物学方法相结合，将揭示细胞定向迁移的细胞基础。

Cell migration plays an important role during morphogenesis. In Drosophila, mesodermal cells migrate in a directed fashion to specific territories in the gastrula. The onset of this migration requires the activity of an FGF-receptor pathway. The goal of this research project is to determine how this instructive signal for cell migration is translated into behavioral changes of the moving cells. Because cell behavior during mesoderm migration has not been described in much detail, we will first analyze cellular morphologies and the timing of events during migration using living and fixed embryos. To analyze alterations in cell behavior, we will use embryonic cell cultures obtained from wild type and mutant embryos. We have identified mutants that show defects in mesodermal cell migration. These will allow us to examine the function of the respective genes, on the basis of the cellular phenotypes of the mutant embryos. The anticipated completion of the Drosophila genome project will permit straightforward molecular analysis of our mutants. We expect that interesting genes will be conserved among organisms and thus our genetic analysis in conjunction with the cell biological approaches will shed light on the cellular basis of directed cell migration.