A hierarchy of protein patterns robustly decodes cell shape information

Polarized Dishevelled dissolution and reassembly drives embryonic axis specification in sea star oocytes

“…Therefore, we used microfabricated oval-shaped polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) chambers to alter oocyte shape by shortening the AV axis (Figure S4A). 28,29 If proximity to the animal pole represses Dvl granule formation, this shape change would cause Dvl to condense at the corners of the oval-the points farthest from the animal pole. Instead, we found that Dvl-GFP localized to the original vegetal pole within the microtubule ring (Figure S4B).…”

“…For shape mold experiments (Figures S4A and S4B), chambers were fabricated by casting PDMS onto patterned silicon wafers as described previously. 29 The chamber shapes were designed with a height of 80 mm and surface area of around 27000 mm2, to match typical volumes of the oocytes. The patterned silicon wafer was manufactured using photolithography (Microfactory SAS, France).…”

Zygotic contractility awakening during mouse preimplantation development

“…Such periodic cortical waves of contraction (PeCoWaCo) were observed in cell culture, starfish, and frog oocytes as well as in mouse preimplantation embryos (Bement, 2015; Driscoll et al, 2015; Kapustina et al, 2013; Maître et al, 2015). In starfish and frog oocytes, mesmerizing Turing patterns of Rho activation with a period of 80 s and a wavelength of 20 μ m appear in a cell cycle dependent manner (Bement, 2015; Wigbers et al, 2021). Interestingly, experimental deformation of starfish oocytes revealed that Rho activation wave front may be coupled to the local curvature of the cell surface (Bischof et al, 2017), which was proposed to serve as a mechanism for cells to sense their shape (Wigbers et al, 2021).…”

“…In starfish and frog oocytes, mesmerizing Turing patterns of Rho activation with a period of 80 s and a wavelength of 20 μ m appear in a cell cycle dependent manner (Bement, 2015; Wigbers et al, 2021). Interestingly, experimental deformation of starfish oocytes revealed that Rho activation wave front may be coupled to the local curvature of the cell surface (Bischof et al, 2017), which was proposed to serve as a mechanism for cells to sense their shape (Wigbers et al, 2021). In mouse embryos, PeCoWaCo with a period of 80 s were observed at the onset of blastocyst morphogenesis (Maître et al, 2015; Maître et al, 2016).…”

“…Similarly, when cells form an apical domain taking up a large portion of the cell surface, the oscillation period does not seem to be different from cells in which the wave can propagate on the entire cell surface (Maître et al, 2016). This raises the question of how robust PeCoWaCo are to geometrical parameters, especially in light of recent observations in starfish oocytes (Bischof et al, 2017; Wigbers et al, 2021). This question becomes particularly relevant when considering that, during preimplantation development, cleavage divisions halve cell volume with each round of cytokinesis (Aiken et al, 2004; Niwayama et al, 2019).…”