CCL19-sorted mature dendritic cells have enhanced lymph node migratory capacity and function

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Early- and late-migrating cranial neural crest cell populations have equivalent developmental potential in vivo

We present the first in vivo study of the long-term fate and potential of early-migrating and late-migrating mesencephalic neural crest cell populations, by performing isochronic and heterochronic quail-to-chick grafts. Both early- and late-migrating populations form melanocytes, neurons, glia, cartilage and bone in isochronic, isotopic chimeras, showing that neither population is lineage-restricted. The early-migrating population distributes both dorsally and ventrally during normal development, while the late-migrating population is confined dorsally and forms much less cartilage and bone. When the late-migrating population is substituted heterochronically for the early-migrating population, it contributes extensively to ventral derivatives such as jaw cartilage and bone. Conversely, when the early-migrating population is substituted heterochronically for the late-migrating population, it no longer contributes to the jaw skeleton and only forms dorsal derivatives. When the late-migrating population is grafted into a late-stage host whose neural crest had previously been ablated, it migrates ventrally into the jaws. Thus, the dorsal fate restriction of the late-migrating mesencephalic neural crest cell population in normal development is due to the presence of earlier-migrating neural crest cells, rather than to any change in the environment or to any intrinsic difference in migratory ability or potential between early- and late-migrating cell populations. These results highlight the plasticity of the neural crest and show that its fate is determined primarily by the environment

From dimers to webs

We formulate a higher-rank version of the boundary measurement map for weighted planar bipartite networks in the disk. It sends a network to a linear combination of $\textnormal {SL}_r$-webs and is built upon the $r$-fold dimer model on the network. When $r$ equals 1, our map is a reformulation of Postnikov's boundary measurement used to coordinatize positroid strata. When $r$ equals 2 or 3, it is a reformulation of the $\textnormal {SL}_2$- and $\textnormal {SL}_3$-web immanants defined by the second author. The basic result is that the higher-rank map factors through Postnikov's map. As an application, we deduce generators and relations for the space of $\textnormal {SL}_r$-webs, re-proving a result of Cautis-Kamnitzer-Morrison. We establish compatibility between our map and restriction to positroid strata and thus between webs and total positivity

A Robust Method for Detecting Interdependences: Application to Intracranially Recorded EEG

We present a measure for characterizing statistical relationships between two time sequences. In contrast to commonly used measures like cross-correlations, coherence and mutual information, the proposed measure is non-symmetric and provides information about the direction of interdependence. It is closely related to recent attempts to detect generalized synchronization. However, we do not assume a strict functional relationship between the two time sequences and try to define the measure so as to be robust against noise, and to detect also weak interdependences. We apply our measure to intracranially recorded electroencephalograms of patients suffering from severe epilepsies.Comment: 29 pages, 5 figures, paper accepted for publication in Physica

A Spectral Phasor Perspective in Zebrafish Muscle Development

Hyperspectral imaging provides the potential for assessing biochemical interactions in the zebrafish embryo in a label-free manner that extends beyond conventional morphological and molecular phenotyping. It takes advantage of the intrinsic wavelengths emitted or reflected from a sample without the need for extrinsic staining methods. The specific spectral signature from a sample can arise from chemical interactions, molecular bonds and macro-structural arrangements. A challenge in hyperspectral imaging is the large spectral data sets that result from acquiring a spectrum for every pixel within an image. Spectral Phasor offers an efficient representation of the spectral data as vectors in Fourier space, thereby condensing each spectrum into a single point in a 2-D plot. The Spectral Phasor has been successfully applied to hyperspectral data on protein samples, demonstrating changes in fluorescence signatures. This study proposes an application of Spectral Phasor to the zebrafish muscle development. The skeletal muscle system provides an attractive model for the proof-of-principle experiments in the implementation of Spectral Phasor. Skeletal muscle is a highly organized tissue with myofibrils as the functional unit that contributes to the repetitive segment of the myotome. The modularity of these units provides unique landmarks for anchoring the SP data. Our analysis of muscle suggest that SP can be used for staging the skeletal muscle development

Spatio-Temporal Differences in Dystrophin Dynamics at mRNA and Protein Levels Revealed by a Novel FlipTrap Line

Dystrophin (Dmd) is a structural protein that links the extracellular matrix to actin filaments in muscle fibers and is required for the maintenance of muscles integrity. Mutations in Dmd lead to muscular dystrophies in humans and other vertebrates. Here, we report the characterization of a zebrafish gene trap line that fluorescently labels the endogenous Dmd protein (Dmd-citrine, Gt(dmd-citrine) ^(ct90a)). We show that the Dmd-citrine line recapitulates endogenous dmd transcript expression and Dmd protein localization. Using this Dmd-citrine line, we follow Dmd localization to the myosepta in real-time using time-lapse microscopy, and find that the accumulation of Dmd protein at the transverse myosepta coincides with the onset of myotome formation, a critical stage in muscle maturation. We observed that Dmd protein localizes specifically to the myosepta prior to dmd mRNA localization. Additionally, we demonstrate that the Dmd-citrine line can be used to assess muscular dystrophy following both genetic and physical disruptions of the muscle

Zebrafish Neural Tube Morphogenesis Requires Scribble-Dependent Oriented Cell Divisions

How control of subcellular events in single cells determines morphogenesis on the scale of the tissue is largely unresolved. The stereotyped cross-midline mitoses of progenitors in the zebrafish neural keel [1–4] provide a unique experimental paradigm for defining the role and control of single-cell orientation for tissue-level morphogenesis in vivo. We show here that the coordinated orientation of individual progenitor cell division in the neural keel is the cellular determinant required for morphogenesis into a neural tube epithelium with a single straight lumen. We find that Scribble is required for oriented cell division and that its function in this process is independent of canonical apicobasal and planar polarity pathways. We identify a role for Scribble in controlling clustering of α-catenin foci in dividing progenitors. Loss of either Scrib or N-cadherin results in abnormally oriented mitoses, reduced cross-midline cell divisions, and similar neural tube defects. We propose that Scribble-dependent nascent cell-cell adhesion clusters between neuroepithelial progenitors contribute to define orientation of their cell division. Finally, our data demonstrate that while oriented mitoses of individual cells determine neural tube architecture, the tissue can in turn feed back on its constituent cells to define their polarization and cell division orientation to ensure robust tissue morphogenesis