Loss of G?12/13 exacerbates apical area dependence of actomyosin contractility.

ABSTRACT: During development, coordinated cell shape changes alter tissue shape. In the Drosophila ventral furrow and other epithelia, apical constriction of hundreds of epithelial cells folds the tissue. Genes in the G_?12/13 pathway coordinate collective apical constriction, but the mechanism of coordination is poorly understood. Coupling live-cell imaging with a computational approach to identify contractile events, we discovered that differences in constriction behavior are biased by initial cell shape. Disrupting G_?12/13 exacerbates this relationship. Larger apical area is associated with delayed initiation of contractile pulses, lower apical E-cadherin and F-actin levels, and aberrantly mobile Rho-kinase structures. Our results suggest that loss of G_?12/13 disrupts apical actin cortex organization and pulse initiation in a size-dependent manner. We propose that G_?12/13 robustly organizes the apical cortex despite variation in apical area to ensure the timely initiation of contractile pulses in a tissue with heterogeneity in starting cell shape.

SUBMITTER: Xie S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5221585 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature