Hedgehog signaling regulates cell motility and optic fissure and stalk formation during vertebrate eye morphogenesis

Establishment of precise three-dimensional tissue structure is vital for organ function. In the visual system, optic fissure and stalk morphogenesis is a crucial yet poorly understood process, disruptions of which can lead to coloboma, a birth defect causing visual impairment. Here, we use four-dimensional imaging, cell tracking, and molecular genetics in zebrafish to define the cell movements underlying normal optic fissure and stalk formation. We determine how these events are disrupted in a coloboma model in which the Hedgehog (Hh) receptor is lost, resulting in overactive Hh signaling. In the mutant, cells exhibit defective motile behaviors and morphology. Cells that should contribute to the fissure do not arrive at their correct position, and instead contribute to an ectopically large optic stalk. Our results suggest that overactive Hh signaling, through overexpression of downstream transcriptional targets, impairs cell motility underlying optic fissure and stalk formation, via non-cell-autonomous and cell-autonomous mechanisms. More broadly, our cell motility and morphology analyses provide a new framework for studying other coloboma-causing mutations that disrupt optic fissure or stalk formation.