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Science 25 August 2006:
Vol. 313. no. 5790, pp. 1130 - 1134
DOI: 10.1126/science.1127144
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Reports

Individual Cell Migration Serves as the Driving Force for Optic Vesicle Evagination

Martina Rembold,1 Felix Loosli,1 Richard J. Adams,2 Joachim Wittbrodt1*

The cellular mechanisms underlying organ formation are largely unknown. We visualized early vertebrate eye morphogenesis at single-cell resolution by in vivo imaging in medaka (Oryzias latipes). Before optic vesicle evagination, retinal progenitor cells (RPCs) modulate their convergence in a fate-specific manner. Presumptive forebrain cells converge toward the midline, whereas medial RPCs remain stationary, predetermining the site of evagination. Subsequent optic vesicle evagination is driven by the active migration of individual RPCs. The analysis of mutants demonstrated that the retina-specific transcription factor rx3 determines the convergence and migration behaviors of RPCs. Hence, the migration of individual cells mediates essential steps of organ morphogenesis.

1 Developmental Biology Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Meyerhofstrasse 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany.
2 Department of Physiology, Development, and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3DY, UK.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jochen.wittbrodt{at}embl.de

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)