Ann Burke

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  Morphogenesis of the Body Wall Across Vertebrates
  Ann Burke

  Enclosing the gut and it derivatives within the coelom is an essential and universal process of vertebrate embryogenesis. This morphogenesis occurs as somitic and lateral plate mesoderm populations interact forming a muscular body wall that fuses at the ventral mid line. The dynamic boundary between somites and LPM is called the lateral somitic frontier (LSF), and it separates the primaxial (entirely somitic) from the abaxial (somitic cells in lateral plate mesenchyme) domain (Burke&Nowicki, 2003). Changes of cell behavior at the frontier are a large component of anterior-posterior patterning, and have been primarily studied in the limb/fin buds. Extensive data on limb/fin development are placed in contrast to the flank, though few studies have directly addressed the development of flank body wall. We have mapped the LSF in the body wall of embryos representing a range of vertebrate crown groups, finding both commonalities and differences in the process of closing the body wall. Changes in the topography of the frontier and the proportion of primaxial and abaxial domains are correlated with major locomotor adaptations.