Abstract: Embryogenesis integrates morphogenesis—coordinated cell movements—with morphogen patterning and cell differentiation. While largely studied independently, morphogenesis and patterning often unfold simultaneously in early embryos. Yet, how cell movements affect patterning remains unclear, as most pattern formation models assume static tissues. Here, we develop a mathematical framework for morphogen patterning in dynamic tissues, reformulating advection-reaction-diffusion models in cells' reference frames. This framework (i) elucidates how morphogenesis mediates morphogen transport and compartmentalization: multicellular attractors enhance cell-cell diffusive transport, while repellers act as barriers, affecting cell fate induction and bifurcations. (ii) It formalizes cell-cell signaling ranges in dynamic tissues, deconfounding morphogenetic movements and identifying which cells can communicate. (iii) It provides two new nondimensional numbers to assess when and where morphogenesis affects patterning. (iv) It elucidates the generative patterning role of cell density dynamics. We show applications to classic patterning models, morphogenetic motifs, and avian gastrulation data. Our work provides a quantitative perspective to rationalize dynamic tissue patterning in natural and synthetic embryos. MORE
Speaker
