on the March 4, 2025
The cells of a developing embryo undergo numerous transformations to give rise to the organs of the future organism. But how do they manage to coordinate several changes of form at the same time?
Matteo Rauzi's team at Université Côte d'Azur's Institut de Biologie Valrose has discovered that the position of the nucleus plays a key role in this orchestration. By acting on the organization of the cytoskeleton, it directly influences the way tissues simultaneously fold and expand. This breakthrough sheds new light on the fundamental mechanisms of embryonic development, and could inspire future innovations in tissue engineering.
Tissue morphogenesis corresponds to the transformations in epithelial shape during embryonic development. It plays a fundamental role in the acquisition of organ structure and function. To shape the embryo into a mature organism, tissues can grow, shrink, thin, thicken, fold or expand. Understanding the mechanisms underlying these changes in shape is a central question in developmental biology.
While the mechanical forces and biochemical signals involved in simple tissue transformations are relatively well known, the way in which a tissue can undergo several simultaneous changes remains largely unexplored. Yet this type of complex transformation, known as composite morphogenesis, is ubiquitous during embryonic development.
A team from the Institut de Biologie Valrose (Université Côte d'Azur) has studied a key example of composite morphogenesis: the simultaneous folding and extension of tissues, a phenomenon essential to major processes such as gastrulation, neurulation and tubulogenesis in many organisms. To achieve this, the researchers used the Drosophila embryo, a powerful animal model that is eco-responsible and free from major ethical concerns.
This study reveals that the position of the nucleus within epithelial cells plays a key role in the modular organization of the cytoskeleton, acting as a dynamic element that modulates the distribution of actomyosin activators in the cell cortex.
These results demonstrate, for the first time, how nuclear relocation directly influences tissue morphogenesis. This discovery opens up new perspectives for understanding the fundamental principles governing complex morphogenetic processes, and could ultimately contribute to the development of innovative approaches in tissue engineering, notably for the manufacture of artificial organs.
Contact: Matteo Rauzi
