Self-organized patterning of cell morphology via mechanosensitive feedback
- Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Germany
- École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
- Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Germany
Abstract
Tissue organization is often characterized by specific patterns of cell morphology. How such patterns emerge in developing tissues is a fundamental open question. Here, we investigate the emergence of tissue-scale patterns of cell shape and mechanical tissue stress in the Drosophila wing imaginal disc during larval development. Using quantitative analysis of the cellular dynamics, we reveal a pattern of radially oriented cell rearrangements that is coupled to the buildup of tangential cell elongation. Developing a laser ablation method, we map tissue stresses and extract key parameters of tissue mechanics. We present a continuum theory showing that this pattern of cell morphology and tissue stress can arise via self-organization of a mechanical feedback that couples cell polarity to active cell rearrangements. The predictions of this model are supported by knockdown of MyoVI, a component of mechanosensitive feedback. Our work reveals a mechanism for the emergence of cellular patterns in morphogenesis.
Data availability
We have made all data analyzed during this study available. Data for Figs 1H-M, 2,4,5, and 7 are provided as source data files. The data on cell area and elongation in Figure 1A-F, 3F,G, and 6C are too large to be submitted here and are available on Dryad (doi:10.5061/dryad.jsxksn06b).
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Date from: Self-organized patterning of cell morphology via mechanosensitive feedbackDryad Digital Repository, 10.5061/dryad.jsxksn06b.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
- Natalie A Dye
- Marko Popovic
- K. Venkatesan Iyer
- Jana Fuhrmann
- Romina Piscitello-Gómez
- Suzanne Eaton
- Frank Jülicher
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (EA4/10-1,EA4/10-2)
- Natalie A Dye
- K. Venkatesan Iyer
- Suzanne Eaton
Swiss National Science Foundation (200021-165509)
- Marko Popovic
Simons Foundation (454953)
- Marko Popovic
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Reviewing Editor
- Jaume Casademunt, University of Barcelona, Spain
Version history
- Received: April 16, 2020
- Accepted: March 25, 2021
- Accepted Manuscript published: March 26, 2021 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: May 19, 2021 (version 2)
- Version of Record updated: May 27, 2021 (version 3)
Copyright
© 2021, Dye et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Self-organized patterning of cell morphology via mechanosensitive feedback
eLife 10:e57964.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.57964
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