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Current Biology : CB Sep 2017During animal development, cell-fate-specific changes in gene expression can modify the material properties of a tissue and drive tissue morphogenesis. While mechanistic... (Review)
Review
During animal development, cell-fate-specific changes in gene expression can modify the material properties of a tissue and drive tissue morphogenesis. While mechanistic insights into the genetic control of tissue-shaping events are beginning to emerge, how tissue morphogenesis and mechanics can reciprocally impact cell-fate specification remains relatively unexplored. Here we review recent findings reporting how multicellular morphogenetic events and their underlying mechanical forces can feed back into gene regulatory pathways to specify cell fate. We further discuss emerging techniques that allow for the direct measurement and manipulation of mechanical signals in vivo, offering unprecedented access to study mechanotransduction during development. Examination of the mechanical control of cell fate during tissue morphogenesis will pave the way to an integrated understanding of the design principles that underlie robust tissue patterning in embryonic development.
Topics: Animals; Cell Differentiation; Morphogenesis
PubMed: 28950087
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.07.010 -
Physical Biology Sep 2023Cells communicate with each other to jointly regulate cellular processes during cellular differentiation and tissue morphogenesis. This multiscale coordination arises... (Review)
Review
Cells communicate with each other to jointly regulate cellular processes during cellular differentiation and tissue morphogenesis. This multiscale coordination arises through the spatiotemporal activity of morphogens to pattern cell signaling and transcriptional factor activity. This coded information controls cell mechanics, proliferation, and differentiation to shape the growth and morphogenesis of organs. While many of the molecular components and physical interactions have been identified in key model developmental systems, there are still many unresolved questions related to the dynamics involved due to challenges in precisely perturbing and quantitatively measuring signaling dynamics. Recently, a broad range of synthetic optogenetic tools have been developed and employed to quantitatively define relationships between signal transduction and downstream cellular responses. These optogenetic tools can control intracellular activities at the single cell or whole tissue scale to direct subsequent biological processes. In this brief review, we highlight a selected set of studies that develop and implement optogenetic tools to unravel quantitative biophysical mechanisms for tissue growth and morphogenesis across a broad range of biological systems through the manipulation of morphogens, signal transduction cascades, and cell mechanics. More generally, we discuss how optogenetic tools have emerged as a powerful platform for probing and controlling multicellular development.
Topics: Optogenetics; Morphogenesis; Cell Communication; Signal Transduction; Biological Phenomena
PubMed: 37678266
DOI: 10.1088/1478-3975/acf7a1 -
Current Opinion in Cell Biology Oct 2018Morphogenesis encompasses the developmental processes that reorganize groups of cells into functional tissues and organs. The spatiotemporal patterning of individual... (Review)
Review
Morphogenesis encompasses the developmental processes that reorganize groups of cells into functional tissues and organs. The spatiotemporal patterning of individual cell behaviors is influenced by how cells perceive and respond to mechanical forces, and determines final tissue architecture. Here, we review recent work examining the physical mechanisms of tissue morphogenesis in vertebrate and invertebrate models, discuss how epithelial cells employ contractility to induce global changes that lead to tissue folding, and describe how tissue form itself regulates cell behavior. We then highlight novel tools to recapitulate these processes in engineered tissues.
Topics: Animals; Biomechanical Phenomena; Cellular Microenvironment; Epithelial Cells; Humans; Models, Biological; Morphogenesis; Organogenesis
PubMed: 29890398
DOI: 10.1016/j.ceb.2018.05.012 -
ELife May 2024Geometric criteria can be used to assess whether cell intercalation is active or passive during the convergent extension of tissue.
Geometric criteria can be used to assess whether cell intercalation is active or passive during the convergent extension of tissue.
Topics: Animals; Zebrafish; Morphogenesis
PubMed: 38700510
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.98052 -
Experimental Biology and Medicine... Nov 2019Microtubules are cytoskeletal elements known as drivers of directed cell migration, vesicle and organelle trafficking, and mitosis. In this review, we discuss new... (Review)
Review
UNLABELLED
Microtubules are cytoskeletal elements known as drivers of directed cell migration, vesicle and organelle trafficking, and mitosis. In this review, we discuss new research in the lens that has shed light into further roles for stable microtubules in the process of development and morphogenesis. In the lens, as well as other systems, distinct roles for characteristically dynamic microtubules and stabilized populations are coming to light. Understanding the mechanisms of microtubule stabilization and the associated microtubule post-translational modifications is an evolving field of study. Appropriate cellular homeostasis relies on not only one cytoskeletal element, but also rather an interaction between cytoskeletal proteins as well as other cellular regulators. Microtubules are key integrators with actin and intermediate filaments, as well as cell–cell junctional proteins and other cellular regulators including myosin and RhoGTPases to maintain this balance.
IMPACT STATEMENT
The role of microtubules in cellular functioning is constantly expanding. In this review, we examine new and exciting fields of discovery for microtubule’s involvement in morphogenesis, highlight our evolving understanding of differential roles for stabilized versus dynamic subpopulations, and further understanding of microtubules as a cellular integrator.
Topics: Animals; Humans; Microtubules; Morphogenesis
PubMed: 31387376
DOI: 10.1177/1535370219867296 -
Advances in Experimental Medicine and... 2017The emergence of the bilateral embryonic body axis from a symmetrical egg has been a long-standing question in developmental biology. Historical and modern experiments... (Review)
Review
The emergence of the bilateral embryonic body axis from a symmetrical egg has been a long-standing question in developmental biology. Historical and modern experiments point to an initial symmetry-breaking event leading to localized Wnt and Nodal growth factor signaling and subsequent induction and formation of a self-regulating dorsal "organizer." This organizer forms at the site of notochord cell internalization and expresses primarily Bone Morphogenetic Protein (BMP) growth factor antagonists that establish a spatiotemporal gradient of BMP signaling across the embryo, directing initial cell differentiation and morphogenesis. Although the basics of this model have been known for some time, many of the molecular and cellular details have only recently been elucidated and the extent that these events remain conserved throughout vertebrate evolution remains unclear. This chapter summarizes historical perspectives as well as recent molecular and genetic advances regarding: (1) the mechanisms that regulate symmetry-breaking in the vertebrate egg and early embryo, (2) the pathways that are activated by these events, in particular the Wnt pathway, and the role of these pathways in the formation and function of the organizer, and (3) how these pathways also mediate anteroposterior patterning and axial morphogenesis. Emphasis is placed on comparative aspects of the egg-to-embryo transition across vertebrates and their evolution. The future prospects for work regarding self-organization and gene regulatory networks in the context of early axis formation are also discussed.
Topics: Animals; Body Patterning; Bone Morphogenetic Proteins; Gastrulation; Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; Morphogenesis; Notochord; Signal Transduction; Vertebrates
PubMed: 27975274
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-46095-6_6 -
Developmental Cell May 2017Organizing data about patterning and morphogenesis into a coherent framework remains a challenge in developmental biology. Reporting in Science, Corson et al. (2017)... (Review)
Review
Organizing data about patterning and morphogenesis into a coherent framework remains a challenge in developmental biology. Reporting in Science, Corson et al. (2017) apply innovative analysis to an old problem of bristle patterns in Drosophila, reducing the nonlinear interactions among tens of cells to a succinct model with quantitative predictions.
Topics: Animals; Body Patterning; Drosophila; Drosophila Proteins; Drosophila melanogaster; Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; Humans; Morphogenesis
PubMed: 28486128
DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2017.04.016 -
Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in... Oct 2020Early heart morphogenesis involves a process in which embryonic precursor cells are instructed to form a cyclic contracting muscle tube connected to blood vessels,... (Review)
Review
Early heart morphogenesis involves a process in which embryonic precursor cells are instructed to form a cyclic contracting muscle tube connected to blood vessels, pumping fluid. Subsequently, the heart becomes structurally complex and its size increases several orders of magnitude to functionally keep up with the demands of the growing organism. Programmed transcriptional regulatory networks control the early steps of cardiac development. However, already during the early stages of its assembly, the heart tube starts to produce electrochemical potentials, contractions, and flow, which are transduced into signals that feed back into the process of morphogenesis itself. Heart morphogenesis, thus, involves the interplay between progressively changing genetic networks, function, and shape. Morphogenesis is evolutionarily conserved, but species-specific differences occur and in mouse, for instance, distinct phases of development become overlapping and compounded in an extremely fast gestation. Here, we review the early morphogenesis of the chambered heart that maintains a circulation supporting development of an organism rapidly growing in size and requirements.
Topics: Animals; Embryonic Development; Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; Heart; Humans; Myocardium; Organogenesis
PubMed: 31932321
DOI: 10.1101/cshperspect.a037143 -
Progress in Biophysics and Molecular... Sep 2023The mystery of the morphogenesis of phyllotaxis has been of concern for several generations of botanists and mathematicians. Of particular interest is the fact that the... (Review)
Review
The mystery of the morphogenesis of phyllotaxis has been of concern for several generations of botanists and mathematicians. Of particular interest is the fact that the number of visible spirals is equal to the number from the Fibonacci series. The article proposes an analytical solution to two fundamental questions of phyllotaxis: what is the morphogenesis of patterns of spiral phyllotaxis? and why the number of visible spirals is equal to number from the Fibonacci series? The article contains videos illustrating the recursive dynamic model of spiral phyllotaxis morphogenesis.
Topics: Models, Biological; Morphogenesis
PubMed: 37209972
DOI: 10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2023.04.004 -
Developmental Dynamics : An Official... Mar 2016The upper jaw in vertebrates forms from several prominences that arise around the stomodeum or primitive mouth. These prominences undergo coordinated growth and... (Review)
Review
The upper jaw in vertebrates forms from several prominences that arise around the stomodeum or primitive mouth. These prominences undergo coordinated growth and morphogenesis to fuse and form the face. Undirected, regionalized cell proliferation is thought to be the driving force behind the morphogenesis of the facial prominences. However, recent findings suggest that directed cell behaviors in the mesenchyme (e.g., directed cell division, directed cell movement, convergent extension) might be required for successful face formation. Here we discuss the evidence for this view and how directed behaviors may interact with the basement membrane to regulate morphogenesis of the facial region. We believe that future research in these largely unexplored areas could significantly impact our understanding of facial morphogenesis.
Topics: Animals; Birds; Face; Morphogenesis
PubMed: 26637960
DOI: 10.1002/dvdy.24374