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ABSTRACT During gastrulation, embryonic cells become specified into distinct germ layers. In mouse, this continues throughout somitogenesis from a population of bipotent stem cells called neuromesodermal progenitors (NMps). However, the degree of self-renewal associated with NMps in the fast-developing zebrafish embryo is unclear. Using a genetic clone-tracing method, we labelled early embryonic progenitors and found a strong clonal similarity between spinal cord and mesoderm tissues. We followed individual cell lineages using light-sheet imaging, revealing a common neuromesodermal lineage contribution to a subset of spinal cord tissue across the anterior-posterior body axis. An initial pop…
Neuromesodermal Progenitors are a Conserved Source of Spinal Cord with Divergent Growth Dynamics
AbstractDuring gastrulation, embryonic cells become specified into distinct germ layers. In mouse, this continues throughout somitogenesis from a population of bipotent stem cells called neuromesodermal progenitors (NMps). However, the degree self-renewal is associated with NMps in the fast-developing zebrafish embryo is unclear. With a genetic clone tracing method, we labelled early embryonic progenitors and find a strong clonal similarity between spinal cord and mesoderm tissues. We then followed individual cell lineages by light-sheet imaging and reveal a common neuromesodermal lineage contribution to a subset of spinal cord tissue across the anterior-posterior body axis. An initial popu…
Self-organised symmetry breaking in zebrafish reveals feedback from morphogenesis to pattern formation
A fundamental question in developmental biology is how the early embryo breaks initial symmetry to establish the spatial coordinate system later important for the organisation of the embryonic body plan. In zebrafish, this is thought to depend on the inheritance of maternal mRNAs [1–3], cortical rotation to generate a dorsal pole of beta-catenin activity [4–8] and the release of Nodal signals from the yolk syncytial layer (YSL) [9–12]. Recent work aggregating mouse embryonic stem cells has shown that symmetry breaking can occur in the absence of extra-embryonic tissue [19,20]. To test whether this is also true in zebrafish, we separated embryonic cells from the yolk and allowed them to deve…
Axis Specification in Zebrafish Is Robust to Cell Mixing and Reveals a Regulation of Pattern Formation by Morphogenesis
Summary A fundamental question in developmental biology is how the early embryo establishes the spatial coordinate system that is later important for the organization of the embryonic body plan. Although we know a lot about the signaling and gene-regulatory networks required for this process, much less is understood about how these can operate to pattern tissues in the context of the extensive cell movements that drive gastrulation. In zebrafish, germ layer specification depends on the inheritance of maternal mRNAs [1, 2, 3], cortical rotation to generate a dorsal pole of β-catenin activity [4, 5, 6, 7, 8], and the release of Nodal signals from the yolk syncytial layer (YSL) [9, 10, 11, 12]…
In Toto Cell Tracking using Lightsheet Microscopy of the Neuromesodermal Progenitor Zone of the Zebrafish Tailbud from the 21st Somite Stage
Lightsheet microscopy has been previously used to image and directly study the process of gastrulation in a zebrafish embryo. Before now it was not possible to use this method to study late-stage somatogenesis, due to the movement of the embryo, resulting in displacement from the field of view. Here we achieve 4D lightsheet imaging with online, image based registration to maintain the field of view during long timelapses, with emphasis on the tailbud. The zebrafish tailbud is of special interest as it contains a population of bipotent progenitor cells, neuromesodermal progenitors (NMps), competent to enter either the mesodermal or neural lineages. This dataset provides in toto tracking of t…