Vertex models: from cell mechanics to tissue morphogenesis

Alt, Silvanus; Ganguly, Poulami Somanya; Salbreux, Guillaume

doi:10.1098/rstb.2015.0520

Cited by 361 publications

(357 citation statements)

References 85 publications

(232 reference statements)

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“…Conversely, morphogen signalling, and specifically the Wnt/PCP pathway, was proposed to increase tissue rigidity by promoting junctional stability and cell density Petridou et al, 2019). vertex Voronoi, self-propelled, percolation theory) will be needed to elucidate the molecular and cellular control mechanisms determining tissue rheology (Szabó et al, 2006;Garcia et al, 2015;Alt et al, 2017;Alvarado et al, 2017). Generally, to attribute the regulation of tissue rheological properties to certain structural or cellular features is still challenging, as these features are often interdependent, making functional assays rather difficult to interpret.…”

Section: Discussion and Outlookmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Systematic analysis of such features alone and in combination, and the development of theoretical models from statistical physics to, e.g., simulate network rigidity (i.e. vertex Voronoi, self-propelled, percolation theory) will be needed to elucidate the molecular and cellular control mechanisms determining tissue rheology (Szabó et al, 2006;Garcia et al, 2015;Alt et al, 2017;Alvarado et al, 2017). Furthermore, different cell and tissue types might be differently regulated in terms of their rheological properties, and it thus will be important to consider cell fate specification and differentiation factors when analysing the regulation of tissue rheology.…”

Section: Discussion and Outlookmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Tissue rheology in embryonic organization

2019

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Tissue morphogenesis in multicellular organisms is brought about by spatiotemporal coordination of mechanical and chemical signals. Extensive work on how mechanical forces together with the well‐established morphogen signalling pathways can actively shape living tissues has revealed evolutionary conserved mechanochemical features of embryonic development. More recently, attention has been drawn to the description of tissue material properties and how they can influence certain morphogenetic processes. Interestingly, besides the role of tissue material properties in determining how much tissues deform in response to force application, there is increasing theoretical and experimental evidence, suggesting that tissue material properties can abruptly and drastically change in development. These changes resemble phase transitions, pointing at the intriguing possibility that important morphogenetic processes in development, such as symmetry breaking and self‐organization, might be mediated by tissue phase transitions. In this review, we summarize recent findings on the regulation and role of tissue material properties in the context of the developing embryo. We posit that abrupt changes of tissue rheological properties may have important implications in maintaining the balance between robustness and adaptability during embryonic development.

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Section: Discussion and Outlookmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussion and Outlookmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tissue rheology in embryonic organization

2019

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“…Tissue Mechanics -Tissue-wide Coupling. Vertex models are a widely employed theoretical approach to describe mechanics of epithelial tissues and morphogenesis (46)(47)(48)(49)(50)(51). The essence of vertex models is that cell geometry within a tissue is given as the mechanical equilibrium of the tissue.…”

Section: R a F Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tissue-wide integration of mechanical cues promotes efficient auxin patterning

Ramos¹,

Maizel²,

Alim³

2019

Preprint

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New plants organs form by local accumulation of auxin, which is transported by PIN proteins that localize following mechanical stresses. As auxin itself modifies tissue mechanics, a feedback loop between tissue mechanics and auxin patterning unfoldsyet the impact of tissue-wide mechanical coupling on auxin pattern emergence remains unclear. Here, we use a hybrid model composed of a vertex model for plant tissue mechanics, and a compartment model for auxin transport to explore the collective mechanical response of the tissue to auxin patterns and how it feeds back onto auxin transport. We compare a model accounting for a tissue-wide mechanical integration to a model where mechanical stresses are averaged out across the tissue. We show that only tissue-wide mechanical coupling leads to focused auxin spots, which we show to result from the formation of a circumferential stress field around these spots, self-reinforcing PIN polarity and auxin accumulation.Correspondence: k.alim @tum.de

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“…Vertex models have proven a useful framework for theoretically studying the mechanical behavior of confluent epithelial tissues (29,30), including the packings of cells in tissues (31)(32)(33) and the dynamics of remodeling tissues (21,31,34,35). Recent studies of the energy barriers to cell rearrangement in isotropic vertex models, which assume no anisotropy in either internal tensions at cell-cell contacts or in external forces, have revealed a transition from solid to fluid behavior, which depends on whether large or small contacts are favored between neighboring cells.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anisotropy links cell shapes to a solid-to-fluid transition during convergent extension

Wang

Merkel

Sutter

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Within developing embryos, tissues flow and reorganize dramatically on timescales as short as minutes. This includes epithelial tissues, which often narrow and elongate in convergent extension movements due to anisotropies in external forces or in internal cell-generated forces. However, the mechanisms that allow or prevent tissue reorganization, especially in the presence of strongly anisotropic forces, remain unclear. We study this question in the converging and extending Drosophila germband epithelium, which displays planar polarized myosin II and experiences anisotropic forces from neighboring tissues, and we show that in contrast to isotropic tissues, cell shape alone is not sufficient to predict the onset of rapid cell rearrangement. From theoretical considerations and vertex model simulations, we predict that in anisotropic tissues two experimentally accessible metrics of cell patterns-the cell shape index and a cell alignment index-are required to determine whether an anisotropic tissue is in a solid-like or fluid-like state. We show that changes in cell shape and alignment over time in the Drosophila germband indicate a solid-to-fluid transition that corresponds to the onset of cell rearrangement and convergent extension in wild-type embryos and are also consistent with more solid-like behavior in bnt mutant embryos. Thus, the onset of cell rearrangement in the germband can be predicted by a combination of cell shape and alignment. These findings suggest that convergent extension is associated with a transition to more fluid-like tissue behavior, which may help accommodate tissue shape changes during rapid developmental events.

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Vertex models: from cell mechanics to tissue morphogenesis

Cited by 361 publications

References 85 publications

Tissue rheology in embryonic organization

Tissue rheology in embryonic organization

Tissue-wide integration of mechanical cues promotes efficient auxin patterning

Anisotropy links cell shapes to a solid-to-fluid transition during convergent extension

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