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The Caenorhabditis elegans Q neuroblasts: A powerful system to study cell migration at single‐cell resolution in vivo
Author(s) -
Rella Lorenzo,
Fernandes Póvoa Euclides E.,
Korswagen Hendrik C.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
genesis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.093
H-Index - 110
eISSN - 1526-968X
pISSN - 1526-954X
DOI - 10.1002/dvg.22931
Subject(s) - caenorhabditis elegans , neuroblast , in vivo , biology , caenorhabditis , microbiology and biotechnology , cell , genetics , gene , neurogenesis
Summary During development, cell migration plays a central role in the formation of tissues and organs. Understanding the molecular mechanisms that drive and control these migrations is a key challenge in developmental biology that will provide important insights into disease processes, including cancer cell metastasis. In this article, we discuss the Caenorhabditis elegans Q neuroblasts and their descendants as a tool to study cell migration at single‐cell resolution in vivo . The highly stereotypical migration of these cells provides a powerful system to study the dynamic cytoskeletal processes that drive migration as well as the evolutionarily conserved signaling pathways (including different Wnt signaling cascades) that guide the cells along their specific trajectories. Here, we provide an overview of what is currently known about Q neuroblast migration and highlight the live‐cell imaging, genome editing, and quantitative gene expression techniques that have been developed to study this process. genesis, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. genesis 54:198–211, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.