Cell migration in the early C. elegans embryo

我们对这项研究计划的兴趣将是探索线虫胚胎发生过程中调节早期成肌细胞迁移的事件和因素。原肠胚形成后，肌肉前体细胞从中线迁移到四个不同的象限，分别靠近背侧和腹侧皮下细胞。这种迁移是在成肌细胞仍在进行细胞分裂时开始的，迁移甚至持续到延伸的早期阶段。这些细胞迁移遵循的模式是，在细胞分裂的最后一轮，成肌细胞的前子细胞向腹侧迁移，而后子细胞向背象限迁移。这种刻板的细胞分裂和迁移行为使其在实验中受到干扰。我们不知道任何生物体中发育中的胚胎中的细胞是如何在所有其他细胞中找到它们的最终目的地的。秀丽隐杆线虫提供了一个相对可控的环境，在其中确定细胞寻路是如何在发育过程中发生的。

Our interest in this research proposal will be to explore the events and factors that regulate early myoblast  migration during embryogenesis in the nematode C. elegans. After gastrulation, muscle precursor cells migrate away from the midline and position themselves into four distinct quadrants adjacent to the dorsal and ventral hypodermal cells. This migration is initiated while the myoblasts are still undergoing cell division and migration continues even into the early stages of elongation. These cell migrations follow a pattern where,  in the final round of cell division, the anterior daughter of a myoblast migrates ventrally, while the posterior daughter migrates to the dorsal quadrant. This stereotypical cell division and migration behaviour lends itself to experimental perturbation. We do not know how cells in a developing embryo in any organism find their way amongst all other cells to their final destination. The nemaode C. elegans provides a relatively controlled environment in which to determine how cell pathfinding occurs during development.