Mapping cell migrations and fates from a gastruloid model to the human primitive streak [article]

Iain Martyn, Eric Siggia, Ali Brivanlou
2019 bioRxiv   pre-print
Although fate maps of early gastrula embryos exist for nearly all model organisms, a fate map of the gastrulating human embryo remains elusive. Here we use human gastruloids to piece together part of a rudimentary fate map of the human primitive streak (PS). This is possible because stimulation with differing levels of BMP, WNT, and NODAL leads to self-organization of gastruloids into large and homogenous different subpopulations of endoderm and mesoderm, and comparative parallel analysis of
more » ... se gastruloids, together with the fate map of the mouse embryo, allows the organization of these subpopulations along an anterior-posterior axis. We also developed a novel cell tracking technique that allowed the detection of robust fate-dependent cell migrations in our gastruloids comparable to those found in the mouse embryo. Taken together, our gastruloid derived fate map and recording of cell migrations provides a first coarse view of the embryonic human PS.
doi:10.1101/616227 fatcat:d3grvjmrojbnlny5x67jkybsri