During vertebrate gastrulation, convergence and extension (C&E) movements shape the germ layers to form the anterioposteriorly elongated body axis of vertebrate embryos. Non-canonical Wnt/planar cell polarity (Wnt/PCP) signalling regulates C&E by polarising the morphology and behaviour of cells, which suggests that the Wnt/PCP pathway might influence the microtubule cytoskeleton. Here, Lila Solnica-Krezel and co-workers investigate this possibility by assessing the position of the centrosome/microtubule organising centre (MTOC) relative to the cell nucleus and the body axes during zebrafish gastrulation (see ). They report that MTOCs occupy a polarised position within the plane of the ectoderm and mesoderm, becoming biased to the posterior and dorsal/medial side of the cell between mid and late gastrulation. This polarisation, they report, depends on intact Wnt/PCP signalling. Conversely, microtubule disruption experiments show that microtubules are required to initiate the anterior localisation of Prickle, a core PCP signalling component. These and other results suggest that reciprocal interactions between Wnt/PCP signalling and the microtubule cytoskeleton are required during C&E gastrulation movements.
