000010020 001__ 10020 000010020 005__ 20250218124649.0 000010020 02470 $$ahttps://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.56893$$2doi 000010020 037__ $$aTEXTUAL 000010020 041__ $$aeng 000010020 245__ $$aRho1 activation recapitulates early gastrulation events in the ventral, but not dorsal, epithelium of <i>Drosophila</i> embryos 000010020 269__ $$a2020-11-17 000010020 336__ $$aArticle 000010020 520__ $$aVentral furrow formation, the first step in Drosophila gastrulation, is a well-studied example of tissue morphogenesis. Rho1 is highly active in a subset of ventral cells and is required for this morphogenetic event. However, it is unclear whether spatially patterned Rho1 activity alone is sufficient to recapitulate all aspects of this morphogenetic event, including anisotropic apical constriction and coordinated cell movements. Here, using an optogenetic probe that rapidly and robustly activates Rho1 in Drosophila tissues, we show that Rho1 activity induces ectopic deformations in the dorsal and ventral epithelia of Drosophila embryos. These perturbations reveal substantial differences in how ventral and dorsal cells, both within and outside the zone of Rho1 activation, respond to spatially and temporally identical patterns of Rho1 activation. Our results demonstrate that an asymmetric zone of Rho1 activity is not sufficient to recapitulate ventral furrow formation and reveal that additional, ventral-specific factors contribute to the cell-and tissue-level behaviors that emerge during ventral furrow formation. 000010020 536__ $$oNational Institute of General Medical Sciences$$cR35GM12709 000010020 536__ $$oUniversity of Chicago$$aFrance And Chicago Collaborating in The Sciences 000010020 536__ $$oNational Institute of General Medical Sciences$$cR01GM085087 000010020 536__ $$oNational Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke$$cR01NS034783 000010020 536__ $$oNational Science Foundation$$cDGE-1144082 000010020 536__ $$oNational Science Foundation$$cDGE-1746045 000010020 536__ $$oNational Institutes of Health$$cT32GM007183 000010020 540__ $$a<p>© 2020, Rich et al.</p> <p>This article is distributed under the terms of the <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" target="_blank">Creative Commons Attribution License</a>, which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.</p> 000010020 542__ $$fCC BY 000010020 594__ $$aAll data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files. 000010020 6531_ $$aoptogenetics 000010020 6531_ $$agastrulation 000010020 6531_ $$aRho1 000010020 6531_ $$amorphogenesis 000010020 6531_ $$aRhoA 000010020 6531_ $$agtpase 000010020 690__ $$aBiological Sciences Division 000010020 691__ $$aMolecular Genetics and Cell Biology 000010020 7001_ $$1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2597-8104$$2ORCID$$aRich, Ashley$$uUniversity of Chicago 000010020 7001_ $$1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4889-2602$$2ORCID$$aFehon, Richard G.$$uUniversity of Chicago 000010020 7001_ $$1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8723-7232$$2ORCID$$aGlotzer, Michael$$uUniversity of Chicago 000010020 773__ $$teLife 000010020 8564_ $$yArticle$$9676b5520-2dd4-431c-962e-278dabfd6be8$$s8434759$$uhttps://knowledge.uchicago.edu/record/10020/files/elife-56893-v2.pdf$$ePublic 000010020 8564_ $$yAdditional files$$993447f3a-2e5f-4605-92ad-702caf54aa58$$s572164$$uhttps://knowledge.uchicago.edu/record/10020/files/elife-56893.zip$$ePublic 000010020 908__ $$aI agree 000010020 909CO $$ooai:uchicago.tind.io:10020$$pGLOBAL_SET 000010020 983__ $$aArticle