Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 10, 2025
07:59
An Optogenetic Method to Control and Analyze Gene Expression Patterns in Cell-to-cell Interactions
Published on: March 22, 2018
7.8K
Size-dependent temporal decoupling of morphogenesis and transcriptional programs in pseudoembryos
Isma Bennabi1, Pauline Hansen2, Melody Merle1
1Department of Developmental and Stem Cell Biology, CNRS UMR3738 Paris Cité, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.
Science Advances
|August 22, 2025
Summary
System size influences gastruloid development timing and shape. Gene expression scales with size, but extreme sizes show unique patterns, highlighting physical constraints in mammalian development models.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Biology
- Stem Cell Biology
- Biophysics
Background:
- Understanding cell fate specification and morphogenesis is crucial in developmental biology.
- Gastruloids, stem cell models of postimplantation mammalian development, offer a unique platform to study these processes.
- The influence of physical parameters on developmental timing and outcomes is not fully understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how physical parameters, specifically system size, impact morphogenetic timing and outcomes in gastruloids.
- To determine if transcriptional programs and cell fate composition are affected by variations in gastruloid size.
- To explore the adaptability of gastruloid models to different system sizes.
Main Methods:
- Quantitative live imaging of gastruloid development.
- Transcriptomic profiling to analyze gene expression patterns.
- Size perturbation experiments to assess system size effects.
Main Results:
- System size significantly affects morphogenetic timing, including symmetry breaking, multipolarity, and axial elongation.
- Transcriptional programs and cell fate composition remain largely stable across a broad range of gastruloid sizes.
- Extreme sizes exhibit distinct transcriptional modules and gene expression shifts, which can be rescued by size perturbation.
- Morphogenesis is driven by system size, demonstrating a decoupling of gene expression from morphogenetic progression in certain conditions.
Conclusions:
- Gastruloids are versatile models for studying spatiotemporal coordination in mammalian development.
- Physical constraints, particularly system size, play a critical role in modulating morphogenetic progression.
- The findings reveal how physical parameters can decouple gene expression programs from morphogenetic outcomes, offering insights into developmental plasticity.
