Marion Baraban

Abstract During morphogenesis and in pathological conditions, gaps can form in the plane of epithelial barriers upon cellular forces that disrupt intercellular junctions. How the size of these epithelial holes further increases over time and what sets their shape remain poorly understood.

Despite their barrier function, epithelia can locally lose their integrity to create physiological openings during morphogenesis. The mechanisms driving the formation of these epithelial breaks are only starting to be investigated. Here, we study the formation of the zebrafish nostril (the olfactory orifice), which opens in the skin epithelium to expose the olfactory neurons to external odorant cues.

Time-lapse movie of GCaMP6s expressing cell shown in Figure 1. Image frames are Maximum Intensity Projections of individual 3D z-stacks. Frame interval 2.89s and imaged continuously for 21 minutes. Arrowheads points to sheaths exhibiting a Ca2+ transient at the relevant time-point. White arrowhead points to a Ca2+ transient occurring in another sheath, which is not sufficiently isolated in the z-axis to be analysed in Fig. 1E. Arrows point to sheaths without any evidence of Ca2+ activity.