How do cells and tissues respond to mechanical forces during morphogenesis? – MechaResp

Biological tissues acquire reproducible shapes during development due to stereotypical dynamic cell behaviours. Epithelial cells remodel their contacts, divide or extrude in response to contractile forces. The magnitude and polarity of these forces are tightly controlled. How cells respond to tensile forces has been little studied but is essential as this defines how forces direct morphogenesis. The material properties of cells are tuneable parameters that can explain two key features of morphogenesis: the irreversibility of cellular deformations and the spatial range of cell-cell mechanical interactions. This project will investigate how mechanical energy dissipation explains these properties in vivo using Drosophila early embryogenesis as a model organism. To this end, biologist T Lecuit and physicists PF Lenne and R Clément will develop interdisciplinary studies by combining modelling, mechanical measurements as well as biological perturbations of the actin cytoskeleton and tissue substrate.