Friction shapes zebrafish embryos: Mechanical forces regulate formation of neural tube
A simple ball of cells is the starting point for humans -- and zebrafish. At the end of embryonic development, however, a fish and a human look very different. The biochemical signals at play have been studied extensively. How mechanical forces on the other hand shape the embryo is the subject of a study by Carl-Philipp Heisenberg, Professor at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria), and his group, including first author and postdoc Michael Smutny. In their study, published today in Nature Cell Biology, the researchers show that friction between moving tissues generates force. This force shapes the nervous system of the zebrafish embryo, a popular animal model of embryonic development. "We show that friction is generated by forming tissues sliding against each other, and that this force is a key mechanism for regulating morphogenesis during embryo development," Carl-Philipp Heisenberg explains.
Michael Smutny, Zsuzsa Ákos, Silvia Grigolon, Shayan Shamipour, Verena Ruprecht, Daniel Čapek, Martin Behrndt, Ekaterina Papusheva, Masazumi Tada, Björn Hof, Tamás Vicsek, Guillaume Salbreux, Carl-Philipp Heisenberg. Friction forces position the neural anlage. Nature Cell Biology, 2017; DOI: 10.1038/ncb3492
This is a dorsal section through a zebrafish embryo during gastrulation showing neurectoderm tissue (cell nuclei in cyan and cell membrane in magenta) and underlying mesendodermal tissue (green cells). Friction forces are generated at the tissue interface of mesendoderm cells migrating to the animal pole and overlying neurectoderm cells moving in the opposite direction towards the vegetal pole of the embryo. Credit: IST Austria
