Multiaxial Polarity Determines Individual Cellular and Nuclear Chirality

Area of Science:

• Developmental Biology
• Cell Biology
• Biophysics

Background:

• Intrinsic cell chirality is vital for establishing left-right (LR) asymmetry during embryonic development.
• Defects in cell chirality can result in severe birth defects related to laterality.
• Previous methods for detecting cell chirality relied on in vitro micropatterning systems.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantify cell chirality by analyzing the coordination of multiaxial polarization in individual cells and nuclei.
• To characterize cell chirality in multicellular epithelial patterns using shape polarization and nuclear positioning.
• To investigate the relationship between cell alignment, nuclear positioning, and directional cell migration.

Main Methods:

• Utilized an object labeling, connected component-based method for quantitative analysis.
• Characterized cell and nuclear shape polarization.
• Analyzed nuclear positioning within multicellular epithelial cell patterns.

Main Results:

• Quantified cell chirality as the coordination of multiaxial polarization of cells and nuclei.
• Observed that cells adopt a LR bias at boundaries, with the sharp end facing the leading edge and nuclei positioned at the rear.
• Found that nuclear positioning exhibits opposite chirality to cell alignment due to rearward positioning.

Conclusions:

• Demonstrated a novel method to quantify cell chirality based on multiaxial polarization.
• Revealed that chiral morphogenesis involves the coordinated polarization of cells and subcellular components like nuclei.
• Provided deep insights into the cellular and subcellular mechanisms underlying chiral morphogenesis and LR asymmetry.