Mysteries of Cell Migration

A few months ago (July 6) I wrote about how cells gather together to create multicelled organisms or multicelled organs.  Now I’ve come across a film of a marvelous experiment showing cells gathered together and “following the leader” in cell migration.

         Here it is, a lovely example of how new techniques for genetically engineering cells can be used to learn something about how cells actually work together.



          The film shows moving border cells inside a fruit fly egg chamber.  Normally, these cells migrate together, and the researchers want to learn how this happens.  So they have engineered the cells to make a protein, called “Rac” that is light sensitive.  Whichever cell in the group has the largest quantity of Rac becomes the leader, and follows the researcher’s light.  All the other cells move right along with this lead cell.

         How amazing and wonderful.  I hope these researchers will keep learning about this.  But just the fact of the leader being the one with the most of a certain protein seems magical and mysterious enough.