Dynamics of a <i>Volvox</i> Embryo Turning Itself Inside Out

Condensed Matter journal club

Dynamics of a <i>Volvox</i> Embryo Turning Itself Inside Out

  • Event time: 11:30am
  • Event date: 8th May 2015
  • Speaker: Matthew Blow (Formerly School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Edinburgh)
  • Location: Room 2511,

Event details

Abstract

Deformations of cell sheets are ubiquitous in early animal development, often arising from a complex and poorly understood interplay of cell shape changes, division, and migration. Here, we explore perhaps the simplest example of cell sheet folding: the "inversion" process of the algal genus Volvox, during which spherical embryos turn themselves inside out through a process hypothesized to arise from cell shape changes alone. We use light sheet microscopy to obtain the first three-dimensional visualizations of inversion in vivo, and develop the first theory of this process, in which cell shape changes appear as local variations of intrinsic curvature, contraction and stretching of an elastic shell. Our results support a scenario in which these active processes function in a defined spatiotemporal manner to enable inversion.
PRL 114 178101 (2015)
pdf version

Authors

Stephanie Höhn, Aurelia R. Honerkamp-Smith, Pierre A. Haas, Philipp Khuc Trong, Raymond E. Goldstein

About Condensed Matter journal club

Given the diversity of research in the CM group, chosen topics vary widely. We tend to stick to high-impact journals - Nature, Science, PNAS and PRL have been popular - but this is not prescriptive..

Find out more about Condensed Matter journal club.