Morphogenetic movements affect local tissue organisation during embryonic Drosophila morphogenesis

Area of Science:

• Developmental Biology
• Cell Biology
• Biophysics

Background:

• Tissue and organ development involves complex remodeling.
• Understanding extrinsic influences on morphogenetic events is crucial.
• The role of external forces in tissue formation is less understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate how extrinsic forces from concurrent morphogenetic events influence embryonic epidermis tissue organization.
• Quantify tissue packing in the Drosophila embryonic epidermis.
• Explore the relationship between cell density, morphogenetic events, and the Crumbs protein in tissue packing.

Main Methods:

• Computational tissue segmentation for quantitative packing analysis.
• Analysis of Drosophila melanogaster embryonic epidermis at stage 10.
• Perturbation experiments of key morphogenetic events (neuroblast delamination, cell divisions, germ band extension).

Main Results:

• The embryonic epidermis exhibits differential organization and cell density along the dorso-ventral axis.
• Neuroblast delamination, cell division, and germ band extension all impact epidermal packing.
• Differential Crumbs protein accumulation correlates with tissue packing and is modulated by these morphogenetic events.
• Crumbs protein is essential for proper embryonic epidermis packing.

Conclusions:

• Morphogenetic events and surrounding cell density intimately regulate tissue packing.
• The Crumbs protein acts as a readout of tissue organization and is required for proper epidermal packing.
• A feedback loop exists where morphogenetic events regulate tissue packing, which in turn influences Crumbs, which then affects packing.