Focal adhesions are essential to drive zebrafish heart valve morphogenesis

We report the initial events of collective migration of AV endocardial cells (ECs) into the extracellular matrix (ECM), and their subsequent rearrangements to form the leaflets. We functionally characterize integrin-based focal adhesions (FAs), critical mediators of cell–ECM interactions, during valve morphogenesis. Using transgenes to block FA signaling specifically in AV ECs as well as loss-of-function approaches, we show that FA signaling mediated by Integrin α5β1 and Talin1 promotes AV EC migration and overall shaping of the valve leaflets. Altogether, our investigation reveals the critical processes driving cardiac valve morphogenesis in vivo and establishes the zebrafish AV valve as a vertebrate model to study FA-regulated tissue morphogenesis.

Source: Journal of Cell Biology - March 3, 2019 Category: Cytology Authors: Gunawan, F., Gentile, A., Fukuda, R., Tsedeke, A. T., Jimenez-Amilburu, V., Ramadass, R., Iida, A., Sehara-Fujisawa, A., Stainier, D. Y. R. Tags: Cytoskeleton, Migration, Motility, Development Articles Source Type: research