Pathway to a phenocopy: Heat stress effects in early embryogenesis.

Background: Heat shocks applied at the onset of gastrulation in early Drosophila embryos frequently lead to phenocopies of U-shaped mutants-having characteristic failures in the late morphogenetic processes of germband retraction and dorsal closure. The pathway from nonspecific heat stress to phenocopied abnormalities is unknown.

Results: Drosophila embryos subjected to 30-min, 38 °C heat shocks at gastrulation appear to recover and restart morphogenesis.

Cellular mechanics of germ band retraction in Drosophila.

Germ band retraction involves a dramatic rearrangement of the tissues on the surface of the Drosophila embryo. As germ band retraction commences, one tissue, the germ band, wraps around another, the amnioserosa. Through retraction the two tissues move cohesively as the highly elongated cells of the amnioserosa contract and the germ band moves so it is only on one side of the embryo.

Apical oscillations in amnioserosa cells: basolateral coupling and mechanical autonomy.

Holographic laser microsurgery is used to isolate single amnioserosa cells in vivo during early dorsal closure. During this stage of Drosophila embryogenesis, amnioserosa cells undergo oscillations in apical surface area. The postisolation behavior of individual cells depends on their preisolation phase in these contraction/expansion cycles: cells that were contracting tend to collapse quickly after isolation; cells that were expanding do not immediately collapse, but instead pause or even continue to expand for ∼40 s.