Anna Franz lab
In vivo swimming cell migration of Drosophila adipocytes

Fat body cell migration

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Fat body cells migrate by swimming in the fluid-filled body cavity of Drosophila pupae. Their migration does not involve lamellipodia as utilised by many known migrating cells that crawl in an adhesion-dependent fashion over substrates using a mesenchymal cell migration mode. Instead, fat body cells use swimming migration, a sub-type of amoeboid migration. Using fat body cells as the currently only known in vivo model of swimming migration, we have shown that fat body cell migration involves peristaltic waves of cortical actin that cause extensive cell deformations that propel these cells through the body fluid. ​

We combine high-resolution live imaging with computational data analysis and genetic manipulations to unravel the molecular mechanism that drives fat body cell migration.

 

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