PUBLICATION

Patterned Disordered Cell Motion Ensures Vertebral Column Symmetry

Authors
Das, D., Chatti, V., Emonet, T., Holley, S.A.
ID
ZDB-PUB-170726-2
Date
2017
Source
Developmental Cell   42: 170-180.e5 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Holley, Scott
Keywords
biomechanics, body elongation, cadherin, collective cell migration, noise regulation, notum, scoliosis, symmetry breaking, systems biology, zebrafish
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Body Patterning*
  • Cell Movement*
  • Computer Simulation
  • Models, Biological
  • Spine/cytology*
  • Spine/embryology*
  • Tail/embryology
  • Zebrafish/embryology*
  • Zebrafish Proteins/metabolism
PubMed
28743003 Full text @ Dev. Cell
Abstract
The biomechanics of posterior embryonic growth must be dynamically regulated to ensure bilateral symmetry of the spinal column. Throughout vertebrate trunk elongation, motile mesodermal progenitors undergo an order-to-disorder transition via an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and sort symmetrically into the left and right paraxial mesoderm. We combine theoretical modeling of cell migration in a tail-bud-like geometry with experimental data analysis to assess the importance of ordered and disordered cell motion. We find that increasing order in cell motion causes a phase transition from symmetric to asymmetric body elongation. In silico and in vivo, overly ordered cell motion converts normal anisotropic fluxes into stable vortices near the posterior tail bud, contributing to asymmetric cell sorting. Thus, disorder is a physical mechanism that ensures the bilateral symmetry of the spinal column. These physical properties of the tissue connect across scales such that patterned disorder at the cellular level leads to the emergence of organism-level order.
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