Development of a 3D atlas of the embryonic pancreas for topological and quantitative analysis of heterologous cell interactions.

Generating comprehensive image maps, while preserving spatial three-dimensional (3D) context, is essential in order to locate and assess quantitatively specific cellular features and cell-cell interactions during organ development. Despite recent advances in 3D imaging approaches, our current knowledge of the spatial organization of distinct cell types in the embryonic pancreatic tissue is still largely based on two-dimensional histological sections. Here, we present a light-sheet fluorescence microscopy approach to image the pancreas in three dimensions and map tissue interactions at key time points in the mouse embryo. We demonstrate the utility of the approach by providing volumetric data, 3D distribution of three main cellular components (epithelial, mesenchymal and endothelial cells) within the developing pancreas, and quantification of their relative cellular abundance within the tissue. Interestingly, our 3D images show that endocrine cells are constantly and increasingly in contact with endothelial cells forming small vessels, whereas the interactions with mesenchymal cells decrease over time. These findings suggest distinct cell-cell interaction requirements for early endocrine cell specification and late differentiation. Lastly, we combine our image data in an open-source online repository (referred to as the Pancreas Embryonic Cell Atlas).

The biomechanical basis of biased epithelial tube elongation in lung and kidney development.

During lung development, epithelial branches expand preferentially in a longitudinal direction. This bias in outgrowth has been linked to a bias in cell shape and in the cell division plane. How this bias arises is unknown. Here, we show that biased epithelial outgrowth occurs independent of the surrounding mesenchyme, of preferential turnover of the extracellular matrix at the bud tips and of FGF signalling. There is also no evidence for actin-rich filopodia at the bud tips. Rather, we find epithelial tubes to be collapsed during early lung and kidney development, and we observe fluid flow in the narrow tubes. By simulating the measured fluid flow inside segmented narrow epithelial tubes, we show that the shear stress levels on the apical surface are sufficient to explain the reported bias in cell shape and outgrowth. We use a cell-based vertex model to confirm that apical shear forces, unlike constricting forces, can give rise to both the observed bias in cell shapes and tube elongation. We conclude that shear stress may be a more general driver of biased tube elongation beyond its established role in angiogenesis. This article has an associated 'The people behind the papers' interview.

Osmotic Treatment for Quantifying Cell Wall Elasticity in the Sepal of Arabidopsis thaliana.

Elastic properties of the cell wall play a key role in regulating plant growth and morphogenesis; however, measuring them in vivo remains a challenge. Although several new methods have recently become available, they all have substantial drawbacks. Here we describe a detailed protocol for osmotic treatments, which is based on the idea of releasing the turgor pressure within the cell and measuring the resulting deformation. When placed in hyperosmotic solution, cells lose water via osmosis and shrink. Confocal images of the tissue, taken before and after this treatment, are quantified using high-resolution surface projections in MorphoGraphX. The cell shrinkage observed can then be used to estimate cell wall elasticity. This allows qualitative comparisons of cell wall properties within organs or between genotypes and can be combined with mechanical simulations to give quantitative estimates of the cells' Young's moduli. We use the abaxial sepal of Arabidopsis thaliana as an easily accessible model system to present our approach, but it can potentially be used on many other plant organs. The main challenges of this technique are choosing the optimal concentration of the hyperosmotic solution and producing high-quality confocal images (with cell walls visualized) good enough for segmentation in MorphoGraphX.

Cellular Force Microscopy to Measure Mechanical Forces in Plant Cells.

Cellular force microscopy (CFM) is a noninvasive microindentation method used to measure plant cell stiffness in vivo. CFM is a scanning probe microscopy technique similar in operation to atomic force microscopy (AFM); however, the scale of movement and range of forces are much larger, making it suitable for stiffness measurements on turgid plant cells in whole organs. CFM experiments can be performed on living samples over extended time periods, facilitating the exploration of the dynamics of processes involving mechanics. Different sensor technologies can be used, along with a variety of probe shapes and sizes that can be tailored to specific applications. Measurements can be made for specific indentation depths, forces and timing, allowing for very precise mechanical stimulation of cells with known forces. High forces with sharp tips can also be used for mechanical ablation of cells with force feedback.

Quantifying Plant Growth and Cell Proliferation with MorphoGraphX.

Confocal microscopy is widely used to live-image plant tissue. Cell outlines can be visualized using fluorescent probes that mark the cell wall or plasma membrane, enabling the confocal microscope to be used as a 3D scanner with submicron precision. After imaging, the data needs to be analyzed by specialized software to quantify the features of interest, such as cell size and shape, growth rates and anisotropy, and gene expression. Here we present a protocol for the 3D image processing software MorphoGraphX ( www.MorphoGraphX.org ) using time-lapse images of an Arabidopsis thaliana sepal and the shoot apex of tomato.

Mechanics, geometry and genetics of epidermal cell shape regulation: different pieces of the same puzzle.

Pavement cells in the leaf epidermis of many plant species have intricate shapes that fit together much like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. They provide an accessible system to understand the development of complex cell shape. Since a protrusion in one cell must fit into the indentation in its neighbor, puzzle cells are also a good system to study how cell shape is coordinated across a plant tissue. Although molecular mechanisms have been proposed for both the patterning and coordination of puzzle cells, evidence is accumulating that mechanical and/or geometric cues may play a more significant role than previously thought.

Why plants make puzzle cells, and how their shape emerges.

The shape and function of plant cells are often highly interdependent. The puzzle-shaped cells that appear in the epidermis of many plants are a striking example of a complex cell shape, however their functional benefit has remained elusive. We propose that these intricate forms provide an effective strategy to reduce mechanical stress in the cell wall of the epidermis. When tissue-level growth is isotropic, we hypothesize that lobes emerge at the cellular level to prevent formation of large isodiametric cells that would bulge under the stress produced by turgor pressure. Data from various plant organs and species support the relationship between lobes and growth isotropy, which we test with mutants where growth direction is perturbed. Using simulation models we show that a mechanism actively regulating cellular stress plausibly reproduces the development of epidermal cell shape. Together, our results suggest that mechanical stress is a key driver of cell-shape morphogenesis.

Clones of cells switch from reduction to enhancement of size variability in Arabidopsis sepals.

Organs form with remarkably consistent sizes and shapes during development, whereas a high variability in growth is observed at the cell level. Given this contrast, it is unclear how such consistency in organ scale can emerge from cellular behavior. Here, we examine an intermediate scale, the growth of clones of cells in Arabidopsis sepals. Each clone consists of the progeny of a single progenitor cell. At early stages, we find that clones derived from a small progenitor cell grow faster than those derived from a large progenitor cell. This results in a reduction in clone size variability, a phenomenon we refer to as size uniformization. By contrast, at later stages of clone growth, clones change their growth pattern to enhance size variability, when clones derived from larger progenitor cells grow faster than those derived from smaller progenitor cells. Finally, we find that, at early stages, fast growing clones exhibit greater cell growth heterogeneity. Thus, cellular variability in growth might contribute to a decrease in the variability of clones throughout the sepal.

On the micro-indentation of plant cells in a tissue context.

The effect of geometry on cell stiffness measured with micro-indentation techniques has been explored in single cells, however it is unclear if results on single cells can be readily transferred to indentation experiments performed on a tissue in vivo. Here we explored this question by using simulation models of osmotic treatments and micro-indentation experiments on 3D multicellular tissues with the finite element method. We found that the cellular context does affect measured cell stiffness, and that several cells of context in each direction are required for optimal results. We applied the model to micro-indentation data obtained with cellular force microscopy on the sepal of A. thaliana, and found that differences in measured stiffness could be explained by cellular geometry, and do not necessarily indicate differences in cell wall material properties or turgor pressure.

Variable Cell Growth Yields Reproducible OrganDevelopment through Spatiotemporal Averaging.

Organ sizes and shapes are strikingly reproducible, despite the variable growth and division of individual cells within them. To reveal which mechanisms enable this precision, we designed a screen for disrupted sepal size and shape uniformity in Arabidopsis and identified mutations in the mitochondrial i-AAA protease FtsH4. Counterintuitively, through live imaging we observed that variability of neighboring cell growth was reduced in ftsh4 sepals. We found that regular organ shape results from spatiotemporal averaging of the cellular variability in wild-type sepals, which is disrupted in the less-variable cells of ftsh4 mutants. We also found that abnormal, increased accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in ftsh4 mutants disrupts organ size consistency. In wild-type sepals, ROS accumulate in maturing cells and limit organ growth, suggesting that ROS are endogenous signals promoting termination of growth. Our results demonstrate that spatiotemporal averaging of cellular variability is required for precision in organ size.

A Mechanical Feedback Restricts Sepal Growth and Shape in Arabidopsis.

How organs reach their final shape is a central yet unresolved question in developmental biology. Here we investigate whether mechanical cues contribute to this process. We analyze the epidermal cells of the Arabidopsis sepal, focusing on cortical microtubule arrays, which align along maximal tensile stresses and restrict growth in that direction through their indirect impact on the mechanical anisotropy of cell walls. We find a good match between growth and microtubule orientation throughout most of the development of the sepal. However, at the sepal tip, where organ maturation initiates and growth slows down in later stages, microtubules remain in a configuration consistent with fast anisotropic growth, i.e., transverse, and the anisotropy of their arrays even increases. To understand this apparent paradox, we built a continuous mechanical model of a growing sepal. The model demonstrates that differential growth in the sepal can generate transverse tensile stress at the tip. Consistently, microtubules respond to mechanical perturbations and align along maximal tension at the sepal tip. Including this mechanical feedback in our growth model of the sepal, we predict an impact on sepal shape that is validated experimentally using mutants with either increased or decreased microtubule response to stress. Altogether, this suggests that a mechanical feedback loop, via microtubules acting both as stress sensor and growth regulator, channels the growth and shape of the sepal tip. We propose that this proprioception mechanism is a key step leading to growth arrest in the whole sepal in response to its own growth.

MorphoGraphX: A platform for quantifying morphogenesis in 4D.

Morphogenesis emerges from complex multiscale interactions between genetic and mechanical processes. To understand these processes, the evolution of cell shape, proliferation and gene expression must be quantified. This quantification is usually performed either in full 3D, which is computationally expensive and technically challenging, or on 2D planar projections, which introduces geometrical artifacts on highly curved organs. Here we present MorphoGraphX ( www.MorphoGraphX.org), a software that bridges this gap by working directly with curved surface images extracted from 3D data. In addition to traditional 3D image analysis, we have developed algorithms to operate on curved surfaces, such as cell segmentation, lineage tracking and fluorescence signal quantification. The software's modular design makes it easy to include existing libraries, or to implement new algorithms. Cell geometries extracted with MorphoGraphX can be exported and used as templates for simulation models, providing a powerful platform to investigate the interactions between shape, genes and growth.