Calcium signaling and formation of cellular protrusions in zebrafish germ-cell migration
Final Report Abstract
Calcium plays an important role in cell migration: it is a regulator of myosin activity and by this way it can control the local amount of force generated by the acto-myosin cortex. We previously found that the protrusions of motile primordial germ cells (PGCs) are formed at sites of higher levels of calcium. To understand this process in more details, we use now the technique of local ablation by pulsed infrared laser. This method allows to perform very well localized damages in 3D at the sub-cellular scale within live tissues. Using this technique, we locally damaged the cellular cortex of motile PGCs and could see that protrusions would expand at this position. Through measurements of calcium levels during the experiment, we could find a correlation between local damage, elevation of calcium levels and induction of protrusions. These results are in line with the hypothesis of the existence of a strong link between the induction of protrusions and an elevation of calcium signal.
