Cell migration in the early C. elegans embryo

我们对这项研究提案的兴趣将是探索在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。原肠形成后，肌肉前体细胞离开中线，并将自己定位成四个不同的象限，毗邻背侧和腹侧的皮下细胞。这种迁移是在成肌细胞仍在进行细胞分裂时启动的，甚至在伸长的早期阶段也会继续迁移。这些细胞迁移遵循这样的模式，即在细胞分裂的最后一轮，成肌细胞的前女向腹侧迁移，而后女向背象限迁移。这种刻板的细胞分裂和迁移行为导致了实验上的扰动。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到达最终目的地的。线虫线虫提供了一个相对受控的环境，在这个环境中确定细胞在发育过程中如何寻路。

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.