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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Aug 14.
Published in final edited form as: Dev Cell. 2012 Feb 14;22(2):309–319. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2011.12.025

Figure 3. abl mutants are defective for axis elongation and rosette formation.

Figure 3

(A–H) Cell behavior in time-lapse movies of WT and abl mutant embryos expressing β-catenin:GFP (n=5 WT and 8 abl movies). (A) Germband elongation was reduced in abl mutants (p=0.001). Germband length was normalized to the length at the onset of elongation (t=0), defined as the time in early stage 7 when the derivative of the elongation curve intersects zero. (B,C) The frequency of neighbor exchange in abl mutants was similar to WT (p=0.12), but the frequency of rosette formation was significantly reduced (p=0.0013). Only cells that lost a neighbor through neighbor exchange or rosette formation were counted as having participated in the event. (D) The average lifetime of vertices where 4 or more cells meet was 6.86+/−0.25 min (mean+/−s.e.m.) in WT (n=324 vertices in 3 embryos) and 4.21+/−0.27 min in abl mutants (n=238 vertices in 8 embryos, p<0.0001) (black circles/lines show the mean/standard deviation). (E,G) Stills from bright field movies of WT and abl embryos. Arrowheads indicate the posterior end of the germband, t=0 was the onset of dorsal pole cell displacement. (F,H) Stills from confocal movies of WT and abl embryos expressing β-catenin:GFP, time in min. (F) A multicellular cable (black line) contracts to form a rosette in WT. (H) Aligned cells in an abl mutant did not noticeably contract during the period of observation. Anterior left, dorsal up. See also Movies S1,S2. Bar, 5 µm.