Advances in bioelectrical sensing and signal transduction

During tissue morphogenesis, cellular rearrangements lead to the emergence of biophysical and biochemical scenarios that cells themselves can sense and translate into a number of responses, including cell division, migration, and differentiation. In this review, we highlight recent advances in the emergence, sensing, and transduction of bioelectrical signals and their contribution to cellular dynamics in embryogenesis and regeneration. We provide an overview of how non-neural cells generate electrical currents and how tissue-level interplay can translate these currents into spatial patterns resembling electric fields. We also discuss recent discoveries of mechanisms by which cells specifically sense and transduce these endogenous bioelectrical landscapes into directed cell migration, tissue growth, and differentiation. Finally, we discuss the relevance of integrating bioelectrical signals into formal cellular, molecular, and mechanical frameworks of directed cell migration and tissue morphogenesis. We emphasize that integrating bioelectrical signaling is both timely and relevant, as current models may remain incomplete if we continue to ignore this otherwise underexplored source of cellular signaling.