TY - JOUR AB - Interstitial fluid (IF) accumulation between embryonic cells is thought to be important for embryo patterning and morphogenesis. Here, we identify a positive mechanical feedback loop between cell migration and IF relocalization and find that it promotes embryonic axis formation during zebrafish gastrulation. We show that anterior axial mesendoderm (prechordal plate [ppl]) cells, moving in between the yolk cell and deep cell tissue to extend the embryonic axis, compress the overlying deep cell layer, thereby causing IF to flow from the deep cell layer to the boundary between the yolk cell and the deep cell layer, directly ahead of the advancing ppl. This IF relocalization, in turn, facilitates ppl cell protrusion formation and migration by opening up the space into which the ppl moves and, thereby, the ability of the ppl to trigger IF relocalization by pushing against the overlying deep cell layer. Thus, embryonic axis formation relies on a hydraulic feedback loop between cell migration and IF relocalization. AU - Huljev, Karla AU - Shamipour, Shayan AU - Nunes Pinheiro, Diana C AU - Preusser, Friedrich AU - Steccari, Irene AU - Sommer, Christoph M AU - Naik, Suyash AU - Heisenberg, Carl-Philipp J ID - 12830 IS - 7 JF - Developmental Cell SN - 1534-5807 TI - A hydraulic feedback loop between mesendoderm cell migration and interstitial fluid relocalization promotes embryonic axis formation in zebrafish VL - 58 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Embryo development requires biochemical signalling to generate patterns of cell fates and active mechanical forces to drive tissue shape changes. However, how these processes are coordinated, and how tissue patterning is preserved despite the cellular flows occurring during morphogenesis, remains poorly understood. Gastrulation is a crucial embryonic stage that involves both patterning and internalization of the mesendoderm germ layer tissue. Here we show that, in zebrafish embryos, a gradient in Nodal signalling orchestrates pattern-preserving internalization movements by triggering a motility-driven unjamming transition. In addition to its role as a morphogen determining embryo patterning, graded Nodal signalling mechanically subdivides the mesendoderm into a small fraction of highly protrusive leader cells, able to autonomously internalize via local unjamming, and less protrusive followers, which need to be pulled inwards by the leaders. The Nodal gradient further enforces a code of preferential adhesion coupling leaders to their immediate followers, resulting in a collective and ordered mode of internalization that preserves mesendoderm patterning. Integrating this dual mechanical role of Nodal signalling into minimal active particle simulations quantitatively predicts both physiological and experimentally perturbed internalization movements. This provides a quantitative framework for how a morphogen-encoded unjamming transition can bidirectionally couple tissue mechanics with patterning during complex three-dimensional morphogenesis. AU - Nunes Pinheiro, Diana C AU - Kardos, Roland AU - Hannezo, Edouard B AU - Heisenberg, Carl-Philipp J ID - 12209 IS - 12 JF - Nature Physics KW - General Physics and Astronomy SN - 1745-2473 TI - Morphogen gradient orchestrates pattern-preserving tissue morphogenesis via motility-driven unjamming VL - 18 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Embryonic stem cell cultures are thought to self-organize into embryoid bodies, able to undergo symmetry-breaking, germ layer specification and even morphogenesis. Yet, it is unclear how to reconcile this remarkable self-organization capacity with classical experiments demonstrating key roles for extrinsic biases by maternal factors and/or extraembryonic tissues in embryogenesis. Here, we show that zebrafish embryonic tissue explants, prepared prior to germ layer induction and lacking extraembryonic tissues, can specify all germ layers and form a seemingly complete mesendoderm anlage. Importantly, explant organization requires polarized inheritance of maternal factors from dorsal-marginal regions of the blastoderm. Moreover, induction of endoderm and head-mesoderm, which require peak Nodal-signaling levels, is highly variable in explants, reminiscent of embryos with reduced Nodal signals from the extraembryonic tissues. Together, these data suggest that zebrafish explants do not undergo bona fide self-organization, but rather display features of genetically encoded self-assembly, where intrinsic genetic programs control the emergence of order. AU - Schauer, Alexandra AU - Nunes Pinheiro, Diana C AU - Hauschild, Robert AU - Heisenberg, Carl-Philipp J ID - 7888 JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X TI - Zebrafish embryonic explants undergo genetically encoded self-assembly VL - 9 ER - TY - CHAP AB - Gastrulation entails specification and formation of three embryonic germ layers—ectoderm, mesoderm and endoderm—thereby establishing the basis for the future body plan. In zebrafish embryos, germ layer specification occurs during blastula and early gastrula stages (Ho & Kimmel, 1993), a period when the main morphogenetic movements underlying gastrulation are initiated. Hence, the signals driving progenitor cell fate specification, such as Nodal ligands from the TGF-β family, also play key roles in regulating germ layer progenitor cell segregation (Carmany-Rampey & Schier, 2001; David & Rosa, 2001; Feldman et al., 2000; Gritsman et al., 1999; Keller et al., 2008). In this review, we summarize and discuss the main signaling pathways involved in germ layer progenitor cell fate specification and segregation, specifically focusing on recent advances in understanding the interplay between mesoderm and endoderm specification and the internalization movements at the onset of zebrafish gastrulation. AU - Nunes Pinheiro, Diana C AU - Heisenberg, Carl-Philipp J ID - 7227 SN - 00702153 T2 - Gastrulation: From Embryonic Pattern to Form TI - Zebrafish gastrulation: Putting fate in motion VL - 136 ER - TY - JOUR AB - During epithelial tissue development, repair, and homeostasis, adherens junctions (AJs) ensure intercellular adhesion and tissue integrity while allowing for cell and tissue dynamics. Mechanical forces play critical roles in AJs’ composition and dynamics. Recent findings highlight that beyond a well-established role in reinforcing cell-cell adhesion, AJ mechanosensitivity promotes junctional remodeling and polarization, thereby regulating critical processes such as cell intercalation, division, and collective migration. Here, we provide an integrated view of mechanosensing mechanisms that regulate cell-cell contact composition, geometry, and integrity under tension and highlight pivotal roles for mechanosensitive AJ remodeling in preserving epithelial integrity and sustaining tissue dynamics. AU - Nunes Pinheiro, Diana C AU - Bellaïche, Yohanns ID - 54 IS - 1 JF - Developmental Cell TI - Mechanical force-driven adherents junction remodeling and epithelial dynamics VL - 47 ER -