Quantifying the relationship between cell proliferation and morphology during development of the face

Morphogenesis requires highly coordinated, complex interactions between cellular processes: proliferation, migration and apoptosis, along with physical tissue interactions. How these cellular and tissue dynamics drive morphogenesis remains elusive. Three dimensional (3D) microscopic imaging holds great promise, and generates elegant images, but generating even moderate throughput for quantified images is challenging for many reasons. As a result, the association between morphogenesis and cellular processes in 3D developing tissues has not been fully explored. To address this gap, we have developed an imaging and image analysis pipeline to enable 3D quantification of cellular dynamics along with 3D morphology for the same individual embryo. Specifically, we focus on how 3D distribution of proliferation relates to morphogenesis during mouse facial development. Our method involves imaging with light-sheet microscopy, automated segmentation of cells and tissues using machine learning-based tools, and quantification of external morphology by geometric morphometrics. Applying this framework, we show that changes in proliferation are tightly correlated with changes in morphology over the course of facial morphogenesis. These analyses illustrate the potential of this pipeline to investigate mechanistic relationships between cellular dynamics and morphogenesis during embryonic development.