A new approach measures the respective participations of elementary cell behaviors – such as cell division, intercalation, shape change and death – in the shaping of animal tissues.

Whether deforming cells behave as elastic balls (deforming at constant volume) or as sponges (loosing volume as they deform) depends on how fast they change their shape, because the cell volume depends on the tension of the plasma membrane.

During Kupffer's vesicle morphogenesis, cell volume anisotropy impacts cell shape changes.

Autonomous patterns of cell contraction in the context of localized apical extracellular matrix constraints specify tissue stresses that reshape the wing epithelium.

Crk proteins are critical mediators of FGF signaling to control cell shape changes.

The hair follicle dermal condensate is populated via migration, and the cells exhibit early changes in cell shape and cell cycle status; Fgf20 primes these cellular and molecular events.

The remarkable lifelong stability of mechanotransducing stereocilia of the inner ear hair cells depends on the activity of the transduction ion channels located at the tips of these mechanosensory projections.

Membrane mechanics predict that the ion channel Piezo recruits the surrounding membrane to amplify its sensitivity to changes in membrane tension, with greatest sensitivity in the low-tension regime.

Active and passive contributions to cell shape change and rearrangements can be distinguished from observed cell geometry, revealing the self-organization mechanisms underlying internally-driven epithelial convergent extension.

MreB filaments bind, orient, and move along the direction of greatest membrane curvature, thus orienting the insertion of new glycan strands around the cell circumference in a manner that may help establish and maintain rod shape.