Tension-driven multi-scale self-organisation in human iPSC-derived muscle fibers

  1. Qiyan Mao  Is a corresponding author
  2. Achyuth Acharya
  3. Alejandra Rodríguez-delaRosa
  4. Fabio Marchiano
  5. Benoit Dehapiot
  6. Ziad Al Tanoury
  7. Jyoti Rao
  8. Margarete Díaz-Cuadros
  9. Arian Mansur
  10. Erica Wagner
  11. Claire Chardes
  12. Vandana Gupta
  13. Pierre-François Lenne
  14. Bianca H Habermann
  15. Olivier Theodoly
  16. Olivier Pourquié  Is a corresponding author
  17. Frank Schnorrer  Is a corresponding author
  1. Aix Marseille University, CNRS, IDBM, France
  2. Brigham and Women's Hospital, United States
  3. Harvard Stem Cell Institute, United States
  4. Aix Marseille University, CNRS, LAI, France
  5. Harvard Medical School, United States

Abstract

Human muscle is a hierarchically organised tissue with its contractile cells called myofibers packed into large myofiber bundles. Each myofiber contains periodic myofibrils built by hundreds of contractile sarcomeres that generate large mechanical forces. To better understand the mechanisms that coordinate human muscle morphogenesis from tissue to molecular scales, we adopted a simple in vitro system using induced pluripotent stem cell-derived human myogenic precursors. When grown on an unrestricted two-dimensional substrate, developing myofibers spontaneously align and self-organise into higher-order myofiber bundles, which grow and consolidate to stable sizes. Following a transcriptional boost of sarcomeric components, myofibrils assemble into chains of periodic sarcomeres that emerge across the entire myofiber. More efficient myofiber bundling accelerates the speed of sarcomerogenesis suggesting that tension generated by bundling promotes sarcomerogenesis. We tested this hypothesis by directly probing tension and found that tension build-up precedes sarcomere assembly and increases within each assembling myofibril. Furthermore, we found that myofiber ends stably attach to other myofibers using integrin-based attachments and thus myofiber bundling coincides with stable myofiber bundle attachment in vitro. A failure in stable myofiber attachment results in a collapse of the myofibrils. Overall, our results strongly suggest that mechanical tension across sarcomeric components as well as between differentiating myofibers is key to coordinate the multi-scale self-organisation of muscle morphogenesis.

Data availability

All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting file; Source Data files have been provided for all Figures; Table S1 contains the analysis of the sequencing data shown in Figure 3

The following previously published data sets were used

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Qiyan Mao

    Turing Centre for Living Systems, Aix Marseille University, CNRS, IDBM, Marseille, France
    For correspondence
    qiyan.mao@univ-amu.fr
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-5564-0457
  2. Achyuth Acharya

    Turing Centre for Living Systems, Aix Marseille University, CNRS, IDBM, Marseille, France
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Alejandra Rodríguez-delaRosa

    Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. Fabio Marchiano

    Turing Centre for Living Systems, Aix Marseille University, CNRS, IDBM, Marseille, France
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Benoit Dehapiot

    Turing Centre for Living Systems, Aix Marseille University, CNRS, IDBM, Marseille, France
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-7559-5497
  6. Ziad Al Tanoury

    Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  7. Jyoti Rao

    Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  8. Margarete Díaz-Cuadros

    Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  9. Arian Mansur

    Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  10. Erica Wagner

    Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  11. Claire Chardes

    Turing Centre for Living Systems, Aix Marseille University, CNRS, IDBM, Marseille, France
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  12. Vandana Gupta

    Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-4057-8451
  13. Pierre-François Lenne

    Turing Centre for Living Systems, Aix Marseille University, CNRS, IDBM, Marseille, France
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-1066-7506
  14. Bianca H Habermann

    Turing Centre for Living Systems, Aix Marseille University, CNRS, IDBM, Marseille, France
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-2457-7504
  15. Olivier Theodoly

    Turing Centre for Living Systems, Aix Marseille University, CNRS, LAI, Marseille, France
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  16. Olivier Pourquié

    Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States
    For correspondence
    pourquie@genetics.med.harvard.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  17. Frank Schnorrer

    Turing Centre for Living Systems, Aix Marseille University, CNRS, IDBM, Marseille, France
    For correspondence
    frank.schnorrer@univ-amu.fr
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-9518-7263

Funding

Human Frontier Science Program (RGP0052/2018)

  • Frank Schnorrer

Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-18-CE45-0016-01 MITO-DYNAMICS)

  • Bianca H Habermann

Agence Nationale de la Recherche (Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR))

  • Fabio Marchiano

Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-10-INBS-04-01)

  • Pierre-François Lenne

Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-16-CONV-0001)

  • Frank Schnorrer

Aix-Marseille Université (ANR-16-CONV-0001)

  • Frank Schnorrer

Turing Centre for Living Systems (ANR-16-CONV-0001)

  • Frank Schnorrer

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (F31HD100033)

  • Margarete Díaz-Cuadros

la Caixa" Foundation " (LCF/BQ/AA18/11680032)

  • Alejandra Rodríguez-delaRosa

Human Frontier Science Program (RGP0052/2018)

  • Olivier Pourquié

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

  • Frank Schnorrer

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

  • Pierre-François Lenne

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

  • Bianca H Habermann

European Research Council (ERC-2019-SyG 856118)

  • Frank Schnorrer

Aix-Marseille Université (ANR-11-IDEX-0001-02)

  • Frank Schnorrer

Agence Nationale de la Recherche (MUSCLE-FORCES)

  • Frank Schnorrer

Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-18-CE45-0016-01 MITO-DYNAMICS)

  • Frank Schnorrer

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Copyright

© 2022, Mao 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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