title: Generic Theoretical Models to Predict Division Patterns of Cleaving Embryos.
abstract: Life for all animals starts with a precise 3D choreography of reductive divisions of the fertilized egg, known as cleavage patterns. These patterns exhibit conserved geometrical features and striking interspecies invariance within certain animal classes. To identify the generic rules that may govern these morphogenetic events, we developed a 3D-modeling framework that iteratively infers blastomere division positions and orientations, and consequent multicellular arrangements. From a minimal set of parameters, our model predicts detailed features of cleavage patterns in the embryos of fishes, amphibians, echinoderms, and ascidians, as well as the genetic and physical perturbations that alter these patterns. This framework demonstrates that a geometrical system based on length-dependent microtubule forces that probe blastomere shape and yolk gradients, biased by cortical polarity domains, may dictate division patterns and overall embryo morphogenesis. These studies thus unravel the default self-organization rules governing early embryogenesis and how they are altered by deterministic regulatory layers.
authors.affiliation: CNRS UMR 7592, Institut Jacques Monod, 15 rue Hélène Brion, 75205 Paris Cedex 13, France.
authors.forename: Anaëlle
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pierre
authors.affiliation: CNRS UMR 7592, Institut Jacques Monod, 15 rue Hélène Brion, 75205 Paris Cedex 13, France.
authors.forename: Jérémy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sallé
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wühr
authors.affiliation: CNRS UMR 7592, Institut Jacques Monod, 15 rue Hélène Brion, 75205 Paris Cedex 13, France. Electronic address: nicolas.minc@ijm.fr.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Minc
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001757:Blastomeres / Q000378:metabolism; D019521:Body Patterning; D002455:Cell Division; D016764:Cell Polarity; D002970:Cleavage Stage, Ovum / Q000166:cytology*; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D008870:Microtubules / Q000378:metabolism; D008954:Models, Biological; D012617:Sea Urchins / Q000166:cytology / Q000196:embryology; D014561:Urochordata / Q000166:cytology / Q000196:embryology; D014981:Xenopus / Q000196:embryology; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000196:embryology
keywords: cell division; cell shape; cleavage patterns; embryogenesis; microtubule asters; modeling