First published online November 24, 2004
Development 131, 2404e (2004)
© The Company of Biologists Limited
Neural crest cells touch their way
During vertebrate development, neural crest cells travel long distances as
streams of cells. The molecular mechanisms that direct these ordered
migrations are poorly understood but, on p.
6141, Teddy and
Kulesa provide in vivo evidence that both local and long-range cell-cell
interactions are involved in neural crest cell guidance in chick embryos.
Here, the neural crest cells migrate just below the surface ectoderm. This
allowed the researchers to closely follow their migration with confocal static
and time-lapse imaging after pre-labelling them with fusion protein constructs
targeted to the cell membrane and nucleus. Unexpectedly, the migrating cells
were in nearly constant contact with each other through their lamellipodia and
filopodia, which intertwined between local and non-local migrating cells. The
researchers suggest that these hitherto unsuspected cell-cell contacts may
signal positional information or enable cells with similar fates to keep in
touch.
Related articles in Development:
- In vivo evidence for short- and long-range cell communication in cranial neural crest cells
- Jessica M. Teddy and Paul M. Kulesa
Development 2004 131: 6141-6151.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
