A main achievement of gastrulation is the movement of the endoderm and mesoderm from the surface of the embryo to the interior. Despite its fundamental importance, this internalization process is not well understood in amphibians. We show that in Xenopus, an active distortion of the vegetal cell mass, vegetal rotation, leads to a dramatic expansion of the blastocoel floor and a concomitant turning around of the marginal zone which constitutes the first and major step of mesoderm involution. This vigorous inward surging of the vegetal region into the blastocoel can be analyzed in explanted slices of the gastrula, and is apparently driven by cell rearrangement. Thus, the prospective endoderm, previously thought to be moved passively, provides the main driving force for the internalization of the mesendoderm during the first half of gastrulation. For further involution, and for normal positioning of the involuted mesoderm and its rapid advance toward the animal pole, fibronectin-independent interaction with the blastocoel roof is required.
Wnt5b–Ryk pathway provides directional signals to regulate gastrulation movement
