Development and control of tissue separation at gastrulation in Xenopus

During Xenopus gastrulation, the internalizing mesendodermal cell mass is b rought into contact with the multilayered blastocoel roof. The two tissues do not fuse, but remain separated by the cleft of Brachet. This maintenance of a stable interface is a precondition for the movement of the two tissue s past each other. We show that separation behavior, i.e., the property of internalized cells to remain on the surface of the blastocoel roof substrat um, spreads before and during gastrulation from the vegetal endoderm into t he anterior and eventually the posterior mesoderm, roughly in parallel to i nternalization movement. Correspondingly, the blastocoel roof develops diff erential repulsion behavior, i.e., the ability to specifically repell cells showing separation behavior. From the effects of overexpressing wild-type or dominant negative XB/U or EP/C cadherins we conclude that separation beh avior may require modulation of cadherin function. Further, we show that th e paired-class homeodomain transcription factors Mix.1 and gsc are involved in the control of separation behavior in the anterior mesoderm. We present evidence that in this function, Mix.1 and gsc may cooperate to repress tra nscription. (C) 2000 Academic Press.