Figure 5. Cdh3 cis-clustering is required for convergent extension but not homeostatic tissue integrity.

(A) Mutations used to inhibit cadherin cis-clustering. (B) Cdh3-GFP clustering in a control embryo. (C) Cis-clusters absent after re-expression of cisMut-Cdh3-GFP. (D) Mean spatial autocorrelation of Cdh3-GFP intensity fluctuations for wild type (60 image frames, from 10 embryos) and the cis-mutant (56 image frames, five embryos) (Appendix, Section 17). Gradual, non-exponential decay for cisMut-Cdh3-GFP indicates a lack of spatial order (i.e. failure to cluster). (E) Control embryos (~stage 33). (F) Sibling embryos after Cdh3 knockdown. (G) Knockdown embryos re-expressing wild-type Cdh3-GFP. (H) Knockdown embryos re-expressing cisMut-Cdh3-GFP. (I) Axis elongation assessed as the ratio of anteroposterior to dorsoventral length at the widest point. (J) Embryo integrity assessed as percent of embryos alive and intact at stage 23.

Figure 5—figure supplement 1. Cdh3 knockdown.

(A) Embryos were injected with Cdh3-MO and membrane-BFP in a single dorsal blastomere at the four-cell stage resulting in mosaic depletion of Cdh3. Here, immuno-staining for Cdh3 shows that the protein was depleted specifically in cells that received the morpholino, as marked by membrane-BFP. (B) Cdh3 immuno-staining intensity was measured in control cells and neighboring Cdh3-MO cells from mosaic animals. These data were derived from three replicate experiments and statistically analyzed by t-test.