Abstract
ABSTRACTThe endoderm is a progenitor tissue that, in humans, gives rise to the majority of internal organs. Over the past few decades, genetic studies have identified many of the upstream signals specifying endoderm identity in different model systems, revealing them to be divergent from invertebrates to vertebrates. However, more recent studies of the cell behaviours driving endodermal morphogenesis have revealed a surprising number of shared features, including cells undergoing epithelial-to-mesenchymal transitions (EMTs), collective cell migration, and mesenchymal-to-epithelial transitions (METs). In this Review, we highlight how cross-organismal studies of endoderm morphogenesis provide a useful perspective that can move our understanding of this fascinating tissue forward.
Highlights
The endoderm is one of the earliest cell types to form in the embryo
Conclusions and future perspectives Work in different models has led to the identification of many of the key upstream factors that direct uncommitted embryonic cells into an endoderm identity
How this cell fate decision is translated into the stereotypical cell behaviours underlying the early stages of endoderm morphogenesis remains poorly understood
Summary
The endoderm is one of the earliest cell types to form in the embryo. It is the progenitor tissue that gives rise to the majority of internal organ systems of the human body, including the respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts, as well as their associated vital organs such as the thyroid, liver, pancreas, prostate and bladder. The tissue derivatives of the three germ layers become stereotypically organized, with cells of the endoderm eventually forming the epithelial lining of a gut tube that runs the length of the anterior-posterior body axis, from the Development (2019) 146, dev150920. Visceral endoderm is responsible for nutrient transport, it provides important signals directing the establishment of the anterior-posterior axis of the mouse embryo This results in the posterior localization of the primitive streak, the morphological site where epiblast cells lose pluripotency and undergo an EMT as they acquire mesoderm and endoderm identities, heralding the start of gastrulation (Arnold and Robertson, 2009; Beddington and Robertson, 1999; Lewis and Tam, 2006; Rivera-Pérez and Hadjantonakis, 2014; Tam et al, 2007). In the early C. elegans blastula, the so-called EMS cell divides to give rise to both the E blastomere, from which the entire
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