β-Pix directs collective migration of anterior visceral endoderm cells in the early mouse embryo
- Tatiana Omelchenko1,
- M. Angeles Rabadan1,
- Rocío Hernández-Martínez2,
- Joaquim Grego-Bessa2,
- Kathryn V. Anderson2 and
- Alan Hall1
- 1Cell Biology Program,
- 2Developmental Biology Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York 10065, USA
- Corresponding authors: omelchet{at}mskcc.org, halla{at}mskcc.org
Abstract
Collective epithelial migration is important throughout embryonic development. The underlying mechanisms are poorly understood but likely involve spatially localized activation of Rho GTPases. We previously reported that Rac1 is essential for generating the protrusive activity that drives the collective migration of anterior visceral endoderm (AVE) cells in the early mouse embryo. To identify potential regulators of Rac1, we first performed an RNAi screen of Rho family exchange factors (guanine nucleotide exchange factor [GEF]) in an in vitro collective epithelial migration assay and identified β-Pix. Genetic deletion of β-Pix in mice disrupts collective AVE migration, while high-resolution live imaging revealed that this is associated with randomly directed protrusive activity. We conclude that β-Pix controls the spatial localization of Rac1 activity to drive collective AVE migration at a critical stage in mouse development.
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Footnotes
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Supplemental material is available for this article.
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Article is online at http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.251371.114.
- Received August 19, 2014.
- Accepted October 29, 2014.
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