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Automated inference of 4‐D cell polarization fields in an agent‐based model of early vertebrate embryogenesis
Author(s) -
Delile Julien,
Kowaliw Taras,
Peyriéras Nadine,
Doursat René
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.25.1_supplement.9.4
Subject(s) - convergent extension , morphogenesis , gastrulation , biology , zebrafish , microbiology and biotechnology , embryogenesis , computational biology , embryo , genetics , gene
We present a theoretical model of animal morphogenesis construed as a self‐organized phenomenon emerging from a complex system made of a myriad of individual cell behaviors. It is implemented in an agent‐based simulation centered on the mechanic‐chemical coupling between cellular and genetic dynamics. The goal is to integrate the collective motion of cells and the dynamics of their gene expression underlying the patterning of morphogenetic fields. Within this larger framework, we examine here cell intercalation, a generic process underlying tissue elongation in vertebrate embryogenesis, in particular the convergence and extension movements shaping the embryonic axes during gastrulation. Cell intercalation is thought to arise from polarized cell movements. In our model, we include monopolar and bipolar protrusive activity of polarized cells to investigate the causal bottom‐up link from local cell behavior to global tissue deformation. Conversely, this model also allows reverse inference, e.g., by evolutionary optimization, of the local quantitative features of cell adhesion and polarization from a global 4 D (3 D + time) computational reconstruction of the cell lineage tree, itself based on in toto imaging data of developing zebrafish embryos.