Anastomosis in a wild-type embryo
Deconvolved spinning disc confocal movie of a Tg(fli1ep:gal4ff)ubs3, Tg(UAS:EGFP-UCHD)ubs18, Tg(kdrl:mCherry-CAAX)s916 embryo at around 32hpf, anterior to the left. Confocal stacks were acquired every minute. Single channels are shown in inversed contrast (green is EGFP-UCHD and red is mCherry-CAAX on left and right, respectively) and the merged channels are shown in the middle. Two tip cells expand filopodia towards each other. Few transient filopodial interactions are observed before a single filopodial contact is maintained and reinforced by the recruitment of actin cytoskeletal components (around the 84th minute of the movie). The cell-cell contact matures and the actin cytoskeleton reorganizes to form junctional ring between the two tip cells (around 129th minute of the movie).