Genetische Kontrolle der mesodermalen Zellwanderung in der Embryogenese von Drosophila

细胞迁移在形态发生中起着重要作用。在果蝇中，中胚层细胞以定向的方式迁移到原肠胚的特定区域。这种迁移的开始需要FGF受体途径的活性。该研究项目的目标是确定这种细胞迁移的指导信号如何转化为运动细胞的行为变化。由于中胚层迁移过程中的细胞行为尚未详细描述，我们将首先使用活胚胎和固定胚胎分析迁移过程中的细胞形态和事件时间。为了分析细胞行为的改变，我们将使用从野生型和突变型胚胎获得的胚胎细胞培养物。我们已经鉴定出中胚层细胞迁移缺陷的突变体。这些将使我们能够在突变胚胎的细胞表型的基础上检查相应基因的功能。果蝇基因组计划的预期完成将允许对我们的突变体进行直接的分子分析。我们希望，有趣的基因将在生物体中保存，因此，我们的遗传分析与细胞生物学方法相结合，将阐明定向细胞迁移的细胞基础。

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.