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Review

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 4, 13–24 (1 January 2003) | doi:10.1038/nrm1006

Border-cell migration: the race is on

Denise J. Montell

The conversion of stationary epithelial cells into migratory, invasive cells is important for normal embryonic development and tumour metastasis. Border-cell migration in the ovary of Drosophila melanogaster has emerged as a simple, genetically tractable model for studying this process. Three distinct signals, which are also upregulated in cancer, control border-cell migration, so identifying further genes that are involved in border-cell migration could provide new insights into tumour invasion.