Mechanical Forces Shape Animal 'Origami' Precisely Despite 'Noise'
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for AnonymousCoward:
Mechanical forces shape animal 'origami' precisely despite 'noise':
The reproducibility of form, shape, and characteristic appearance is a key feature of our development that is made possible because their instructions are coded in our DNA. What is perplexing, however, is how this reproducibility is achieved despite genetic variation and developmental "noise" resulting from environmental, physical and chemical fluctuations. Recent work in fruit flies has suggested that "noise-canceling" mechanisms in the embryo rely on a detailed and highly reproducible genetic "blueprint" with specific instructions down to the single-cell level.
Now, in research published in Developmental Cell, an international team led by Yu-Chiun Wang at RIKEN BDR asked whether this blueprint is sufficient to explain developmental consistency, or whether it is helped by alternative noise-canceling mechanisms. Their findings indicate a previously overlooked role for the mechanical forces that sculpt the embryo, as they turn out to be the noise-producing culprit as well as the key to ensuring precision-a true double-edged sword!
[...] The conclusion of this study is that the constancy of animal form requires more than just the deterministic process of genetic inheritance and genetic networks, but also relies on the stochastic and emergent behaviors of mechanical forces. "This work taught us that constancy in biology stems not only from its regulatory complexity, but also from the unique noise-and-self-correction principle of self-organization. This is a missing chapter in developmental biology textbooks," Wang says.
Wang also thinks that by the same token, pathological processes that involve growth, reorganization and changing cell and tissue shapes, such as tumor formation and cancer metastasis, must also contain an element of mechanical self-organization, alongside the well-known factor of genetic susceptibility. "The cephalic furrow is a very pronounced structure," he continues, "yet it forms and disappears about one hour after its initiation. This mysterious, beautiful and yet ephemeral structure of 'epithelial origami' continues to mesmerize us and teach us things that we haven't yet understood about animal development."
Anthony S.Eritano, et al. Developmental Cell (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2020.02.012
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