Migration While Developing

What am I looking at?

This is a time-lapse video of the posterior side of a developing zebrafish. The cell borders are labeled in blue. Lateral line cells (part of the microsensory system) are labeled in green. And melanocytes (cells that eventually give a zebrafish its colored stripes) are orange. This video compacts eight hours of development into 16 seconds.

Biology in the background

During development, cells move around constantly. Often, specific cell types arise in one area of the developing organism but then need to migrate to another destination as the organism grows and changes. In this video, you can see the migration of lateral line cells (green) toward the zebrafish’s developing tail. These cells and their daughter cells will eventually become part of the sensory system that perceives water movement in an adult zebrafish. Being able to sense water movement helps zebrafish detect both prey and predators. It also aids in navigation and “schooling” behavior.

The video also shows developing melanocytes (orange) scattered throughout the embryo. Melanocytes are cells that will give the zebrafish the colored pattern on its skin as an adult.

In a zebrafish, lateral line cells are about 15 micrometers across, or roughly five times smaller than the width of a human hair. And melanocytes are about 7 micrometers across, or roughly 10 times smaller than the width of a human hair.

Technique

This video was created using laser scanning confocal microscopy.