The secreted AdamTS-A metalloprotease is required for collective cell migration.

Members of the ADAMTS family of secreted metalloproteases play crucial roles in modulating the extracellular matrix (ECM) in development and disease. Here, we show that ADAMTS-A, the Drosophila ortholog of human ADAMTS 9 and ADAMTS 20, and of C. elegans GON-1, is required for cell migration during embryogenesis. AdamTS-A is expressed in multiple migratory cell types, including hemocytes, caudal visceral mesoderm (CVM), the visceral branch of the trachea (VBs) and the secretory portion of the salivary gland (SG). Loss of AdamTS-A causes defects in germ cell, CVM and VB migration and, depending on the tissue, AdamTS-A functions both autonomously and non-autonomously. In the highly polarized collective of the SG epithelium, loss of AdamTS-A causes apical surface irregularities and cell elongation defects. We provide evidence that ADAMTS-A is secreted into the SG lumen where it functions to release cells from the apical ECM, consistent with the defects observed in AdamTS-A mutant SGs. We show that loss of the apically localized protocadherin Cad99C rescues the SG defects, suggesting that Cad99C serves as a link between the SG apical membrane and the secreted apical ECM component(s) cleaved by ADAMTS-A. Our analysis of AdamTS-A function in the SG suggests a novel role for ADAMTS proteins in detaching cells from the apical ECM, facilitating tube elongation during collective cell migration.

Kinetic and mechanical analysis of live tube morphogenesis.

Ribbon is a nuclear Broad Tramtrack Bric-a-brac (BTB) -domain protein required for morphogenesis of the salivary gland and trachea. We recently showed that ribbon mutants exhibit decreased Crumbs and Rab11-coincident apical vesicles and increased apical Moesin activity and microvillar structure during tube elongation. To learn how these molecular and morphological changes affect the dynamics of tubulogenesis, we optimized an advanced two-photon microscope to enable high-resolution live imaging of the salivary gland and trachea. Live imaging revealed that ribbon mutant tissues exhibit slowed and incomplete lumenal morphogenesis, consistent with previously described apical defects. Because Moesin activity correlates with cortical stiffness, we hypothesize that ribbon mutants suffer from increased apical stiffness during morphogenesis. We develop this hypothesis through mechanical analysis, using the advantages of live imaging to construct computational elastic and analytical viscoelastic models of tube elongation, which suggest that ribbon mutant tubes exhibit three- to fivefold increased apical stiffness and twofold increased effective apical viscosity.

Ribbon modulates apical membrane during tube elongation through Crumbs and Moesin.

Although the formation and maintenance of epithelial tubes are essential for the viability of multicellular organisms, our understanding of the molecular and cellular events coordinating tubulogenesis is relatively limited. Here, we focus on the activities of Ribbon, a novel BTB-domain containing nuclear protein, in the elongation of two epithelial tubes: the Drosophila salivary gland and trachea. We show that Ribbon interacts with Lola Like, another BTB-domain containing protein required for robust nuclear localization of Ribbon, to upregulate crumbs expression and downregulate Moesin activity. Our ultrastructural analysis of ribbon null salivary glands by TEM reveals a diminished pool of subapical vesicles and an increase in microvillar structure, cellular changes consistent with the known role of Crumbs in apical membrane generation and of Moesin in the cross-linking of the apical membrane to the subapical cytoskeleton. Furthermore, the subapical localization of Rab11, a small GTPase associated with apical membrane delivery and rearrangement, is significantly diminished in ribbon mutant salivary glands and tracheae. These findings suggest that Ribbon and Lola Like function as a novel transcriptional cassette coordinating molecular changes at the apical membrane of epithelial cells to facilitate tube elongation.

From fate to function: the Drosophila trachea and salivary gland as models for tubulogenesis.

Tube formation is a ubiquitous process required to sustain life in multicellular organisms. The tubular organs of adult mammals include the lungs, vasculature, digestive and excretory systems, as well as secretory organs such as the pancreas, salivary, prostate, and mammary glands. Other tissues, including the embryonic heart and neural tube, have requisite stages of tubular organization early in development. To learn the molecular and cellular basis of how epithelial cells are organized into tubular organs of various shapes and sizes, investigators have focused on the Drosophila trachea and salivary gland as model genetic systems for branched and unbranched tubes, respectively. Both organs begin as polarized epithelial placodes, which through coordinated cell shape changes, cell rearrangement, and cell migration form elongated tubes. Here, we discuss what has been discovered regarding the details of cell fate specification and tube formation in the two organs; these discoveries reveal significant conservation in the cellular and molecular events of tubulogenesis.