Abstract
Tissue elongation is known to be controlled by oriented cell division, elongation, migration and rearrangement. While these cellular processes have been extensively studied, new emerging supracellular mechanisms driving tissue extension have recently been unveiled. Tissue rotation and actomyosin contractions have been shown to be key processes driving Drosophila egg chamber elongation. First, egg chamber rotation facilitates the dorsal-ventral alignment of the extracellular matrix and of the cell basal actin fibers. Both fiber-like structures form supracellular networks constraining the egg growth in a polarized fashion thus working as ‘molecular corsets’. Second, the supracellular actin fiber network, powered by myosin periodic oscillation, contracts anisotropically driving tissue extension along the egg anterior-posterior axis. During both processes, cellular and supracellular planar polarity provide a critical cue to control Drosophila egg chamber elongation. Here we review how different planar polarized networks are built, maintained and function at both cellular and supracellular levels in the Drosophila ovarian epithelium.
Highlights
Tissue extension is a fundamental process during embryo development
We focus on the process of elongation in the Drosophila egg chamber, a powerful model system to study the cellular mechanisms driving epithelial morphogenesis
While during the first phase of elongation the corset works as a passive scaffold, during the second phase (S9-S10) the corset generates active forces powered by actomyosin contractions
Summary
Tissue extension is a fundamental process during embryo development. The extension of tissues contributes to shape the developing embryo and drives the separation of groups of cells that will form different parts of an animal. A key and archetypal tissue elongation process is the one directed along the anterior-posterior (AP) axis of the embryo that drives the separation of the head region from the posterior region where the future brain and the anus of the animal will eventually form, respectively (Keller, 2002). This primordial shape transformation defines one of the main axes along which the embryo develops and the animal will be structured
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