Molecules and Morphogenesis:
Cell Polarity, frog gastrulation, and human neural tube defects

We have shown that the planar cell polarity signaling cascade orients cells movements during frog gastrulation. New results demonstrate that these cell movements make critical contributions to neural tube closure. Interestingly, morphological and molecular comparisons reveal striking similarities between spontaneous human neural tube defects and experimentally-generated defects in neural tube closure in the frog.

Presenter: John B. Willingford '92, Postdoctoral Fellow, Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley