Studies on the role of Rab11 in Drosophila epithelial morphogenesis

Abstract

The present work provides a detailed account of the spectrum of cellular parameters governed by Rab11 functions in epithelial morphogenesis with an emphasis upon probable mechanism of action. The present work endeavors to promote an understanding of the physiological aspects of epithelial cells which show coordinated cell shape changes for the successful execution of a morphogenetic event such as dorsal closure in Drosophila embryos. The morphogenesis of the dorsal epithelium is a unique event in the course of fly embryonic development where collective cell shape changes as a response to physico-chemical cues helps establish a continuum of epithelial cells over the dorsal opening, a model system which mimics the epithelial wound healing process. Here, as reported by Sasikumar and Roy, 2009, Rab11 seems to be playing fundamental roles such as cell-cell adhesion maintenance and cytoskeleton organization which get perturbed in amorphic as well as hypomorphic mutants. newline