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Wylie-Heasman Lab

Mouse Information

Mouse in the living stateCell migration is an essential component of morphogenesis, and establishes the pattern of organs in the body. We study this process using primordial germ cells, which migrate from to the early gonad during organogenesis. This process can be studied, in the living state, in a mouse line expressing green fluorescent protein in the germ line. Slices of E9.5 embryo, taken from the region shown on the left, can be cultured and filmed. The effects of added agonists or antagonists of signaling pathways, or targeted mutations, can be studied in real time.
Untreated living embryo sliceTreated living embryo slice
An untreated living embryo slice in which the primordial germ cells can be seen by their expression of GFP. The germ cells have migrated to form two large groups in the area where the gonads will form.A living embryo slice treated with a signaling ligand (Stromal-derived factor 1). SDF1 controls the direction of germ cell migration to the gonads, and so its presence throughout the slice has blocked the directionality of germ cell migration, leaving them randomly distributed across the midline.