アクティブボード・２０１２年　５月
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研究発表を行った学会；
・6th international Chick Meeting
　２０１１年　９月１７日〜２０日（Edinburgh, UK）

タイトル；Somitic filopodia are involved in dorsal aorta transposition.

発表者；佐藤　有紀　氏
　　　（熊本大学　大学院先導機構）
Abstract；
Aorta is the largest artery in the center of the body. It arises from dorsal aortae during embryogenesis. A pair of nascent dorsal aortae migrates from lateral to medial, eventually arrive midline to merge with each other. This movement allows the laterally-located primitive dorsal aortae to create definitive aorta. Precise formation of the aorta is important for midline patterning of the vertebrate body, however, the mechanisms underlying the dorsal aorta transposition has not been well studied. We found the somitic cells project filopodia-like processes transiently toward the direction of the dorsal aorta migration. To investigate the roles of the somitic filopodia, we performed an ablation experiment. FP4-mito protein was engineered to sequester endogenous Ena/VASP proteins that are critically required for F-actin elongation specifically in the filopodium (gift from Dr. F. Gertler, MIT). Electropration of the FP4-mito gene into the somites in quail embryo causes failure of filopodia formation. Interestingly, loss of the filopodia in the somites did not affect somitegenesis, but resulted in impaired dorsal aorta transposition. This indicates that the filopodia projected from the somites are required non-cell autonomously for the dorsal aorta formation. Based on these results, we propose a model of the dorsal aorta transposition mechanism.