Hunting for the wavefront: investigation of somite boundary positioning in zebrafish

Somitogenesis is the rhythmic and sequential formation of somites, which are tissue blocks that give rise to segmented adult body structures including the vertebrae and associated muscle. Somite formation is controlled by the segmentation clock, a population of genetic oscillators that are coordinated by an interplay of cell-intrinsic and -extrinsic spatiotemporal information. Disruption of the segmentation clock can lead to misplaced or defective somite boundaries, and consequently results in deformed adult structures (e.g., congenital scoliosis). Despite decades of research into how the segmentation clock pattern is established, and how it acts to position somite boundaries within the pre-segmental mesoderm(PSM), many open questions remain. The position where the somite boundary is set along the anteroposterior axis of the PSM has been named the "determination front". Question still remain as to the mechanism and location of the determination front, and what spatiotemporal information is instructive. Here I present three studies that tackle this question by advancing imaging and analysis tools such that questions that have persisted for decades can be directly addressed. My work contributed significantly to obtaining a better picture of how somite boundaries are precisely formed.