Researchers from MPI-CBG, TU Dresden and CSBD have discovered a mechanism that transforms flat tissues into three-dimensional structures, using the fruit fly’s wing development as a model. This breakthrough could revolutionize our understanding of animal development.
A fundamental question in biology and biophysics is how three-dimensional tissue shapes emerge during animal development. Research teams from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) in Dresden, Germany, the Excellence Cluster Physics of Life (PoL) at TU Dresden and the Center for Systems Biology Dresden (CSBD) have identified a pivotal mechanism behind this complex process.
Led by Carl Modes, group leader at the MPI-CBG and the CSBD, and Natalie Dye, group leader at PoL, the researchers focused on the fruit fly Drosophila, specifically observing its wing disc pouch, which transforms dramatically from a shallow dome shape into a curved fold, eventually becoming the adult fly’s wing.
By developing a new method to measure these three-dimensional shape changes and analyzing cellular behaviors, the team uncovered how tissues transition from flat states to complex, three-dimensional forms.
3D surface of the fruit fly wing disc before (left) and after (right) eversion. Highlighted in blue is the pouch region, which transforms from a radially symmetric dome into a curved fold by shape-programmed cell behaviors. The dashed and dotted lines indicate the main axes used to analyze these morphological changes.
Copyright: Fuhrmann et al., Science Advances 2024, MPI-CBG
“To explain this process, we drew inspiration from ‘shape-programmable’ inanimate material sheets, such as thin hydrogels, that can transform into three-dimensional shapes through internal stresses when stimulated,” said Dye in a news release.
The research, published in the journal Science Advances, highlights the role of programmed cell behaviors in shaping tissues.
The study suggests these behaviors are central to the transformation and do not rely on external forces from surrounding tissues. This was validated by reducing cell movements, confirming that cellular rearrangements are the primary drivers behind these morphological changes.
“Using a physical model, we showed that collective, programmed cell behaviors are sufficient to create the shape changes seen in the wing disc pouch,” Jana Fuhrmann, a postdoctoral fellow in Dye’s group, said in the news release.
Furthermore, these discoveries indicate that internal stress, initiated by active cell behaviors, shapes the wing disc pouch during eversion.
The team’s findings build on previous models of shape programmability but expand the framework to include both uniform and direction-dependent effects of cell behavior.
“The new models for shape programmability that we developed are connected to different types of cell behaviors,” added Abhijeet Krishna, a doctoral student in Carl Modes’ group.