Regensburg 2022 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 22: Migration and Multicellular Systems

BP 22.6: Vortrag

Donnerstag, 8. September 2022, 11:15–11:30, H15

Redirecting early embryogenesis of the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans via altered mechanical cues — •Vincent Borne and Matthias Weiss — Experimental Physics I, University of Bayreuth, Universitätsstr. 30, D-95447 Bayreuth, Germany

During early development, somatic and germline precursor cells of the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans undergo an apparently predetermined and robust division scheme, suggesting early embryogenesis to run on autopilot. While the role of biochemical signaling in this process has long been recognized, the influence of mechanical forces for proper cell arrangement until gastrulation has only recently been revealed. Aiming to further explore, how mechanical cues contribute to proper embryogenesis, we have challenged the natural development at early stages via laser microsurgery and physical compression. As a result, we were able to significantly perturb the embryonic division scheme with both approaches, leading to catastrophic failures of cell divisions. While defects introduced by laser ablation remained mostly restricted to cells that had been challenged, compression frequently resulted in a global perturbation: Cytokinesis was compromised, leading to multinucleated cells or even a syncytium state in which nuclei kept on dividing up to stages of 60 nuclei or more with similar timing characteristics as observed in unperturbed embryos. Our data therefore underline the crucial role of properly adjusted mechanical cues during the early embryogenesis of C. elegans.