All bilaterian eucaryotes are composed of three germ layers: the ectoderm, the endoderm and the mesoderm. In modern embryology gastrulation is understood as the phase in early development during which these three germ layers are established. In Drosophila with its remarkably fast embryonic development the mesoderm is formed just after the embryo has achieved its cellular epithelium (A). Now ventral cells undergo rapid apical cell constriction (B) resulting in a tube-like involution of tissue (C), which, once it has been fully incorporated, begins to shape mesodermal structures. This contracting band of cells appears as a long longitudinal crease along the ventral epithelium, the so-called ventral furrow (D).

We use various approaches, such as 3D modelling (E) and confocal live-imaging (F), to understand the cell biological mechanisms necessary to drive the cell shape change that allows this kind of tissue morphogenesis.

"It is not birth, marriage, or death, but gastrulation, which is truly the most important time in your life."

Lewis Wolpert

Publications:

P. Spahn, A. Ott, R. Reuter. 2012. The PDZ-GEF Dizzy regulates the establishment of adherens junctions required for ventral furrow formation in Drosophila. Accepted in J Cell Sci