α-Cat¹³ mutant embryos show anterior cuticle defects and frequently display holes, some also develop a completely dorsal open phenotype or dorsal holes. The embryos start to develop normally (due to maternal contribution of α-Cat) but begin to show defects during the dorsal closure as the anterior canthus does not form properly. The mutants display a reduction in the velocity of progression of the leading edge during dorsal closure compared to wild-type controls, however it is not due to a decrease in the number of cell delamination events as this is actually increased in the mutants and the total number of amnioserosa cells at the onset of tissue contraction is comparable to controls. The oscillatory and contractile behavior of amnioserosa cells during the closure process is similar to wild-type and the actin dynamics in these cells is also not perturbed.