Overview
Part of the Biological Function in Space and Time: From Forces and Cues to Emerging Decision-making in Fates, States, and Shapes workshop. All are welcome to attend this seminar.
Title: Morphogenetic robustness from mechanochemical interactions
Abstract: Developing tissues are inherently noisy: forces and biochemical signals vary in space and time, and neighbouring cells or structures display substantial heterogeneity. Yet morphogenesis is reproducible. I will discuss how mechanochemical feedbacks can buffer this variability, and under which conditions they instead amplify it. At the junctional scale, we identify in Drosophila epithelia an emergent mechano-response that ensures junction length and cell shape stability without a dedicated molecular force sensor. When negative and positive regulators of contractility have distinct turnover kinetics, junction elongation dilutes them differentially, transiently lifting an inhibition on contractility and restoring the initial length. Combining theory with live imaging and genetic perturbations, we show that this buffers local fluctuations and global stresses, and controls cell shape and tissue fluidity. At the tissue scale, we turn to crypt formation in the postnatal mouse intestine. Mechanical coupling through the shared villus would be expected to promote competition, and indeed generates winner-takes-all dynamics. Convergence instead requires transient villus swelling, which relaxes epithelial tension, combined with local density mechanosensing that synchronizes contractility across neighbouring crypts. We sketch a theoretical framework where the balance between local cooperation and global mechanical constraints, sets the lengthscale over which morphogenetic units compete or cooperate.
About the NITMB Seminar Series:
The NSF-Simons National Institute for Theory and Mathematics in Biology Seminar Series brings together a mix of mathematicians and biologists to foster discussion and collaboration between the two fields. The seminar series typically takes place on Fridays from 10am – 11am at NITMB. Talks are in-person with the ability to join remotely.
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