During development of the mouse urogenital complex, the gonads undergo changes in three-dimensional structure, body position, and spatial relationship with the mesonephric ducts, kidneys, and adrenals. The complexity of genital ridge development obscures potential connections between morphogenesis and gonadal sex determination. To characterize the morphogenic processes implicated in regulating gonad shape and fate, we used whole embryo tissue clearing and light sheet microscopy to assemble a time course of gonad development in native form and context. Analysis revealed that gonad morphology is determined through anterior-to-posterior patterns as well as increased rates of growth, rotation, and separation in the central domain that may contribute to regionalization of the gonad. We report a close alignment of gonad and mesonephric duct movements and delayed duct development in a gonad dysgenesis mutant, which together support a mechanical dependency linking gonad and mesonephric duct morphogenesis.

3D renderings of whole SF1:eGFP mouse embryos. Samples are labelled with antibodies against GFP (green) and PAX8 (red) and cleared using iDISCO tissue clearing. Imaris and Imaris viewer software (Bitplane) can be used to view .ims files.

Further details for each sample can be found in the README.txt file.