Abstract:
How cellular activity is coordinated over long spatial and temporal timescales to robustly build complex 3D tissue morphologies remains a fascinating open topic in biology and biophysics. In my group, we study this question using the Drosophila wing and human organoid model systems, striving to uncover fundamental mechanisms for collective cell organization that are relevant for both development and disease. In this talk, I will discuss our recent work examining how the primordial wing epithelium in the fruit fly larvae undergoes dramatic 3D tissue shape changes during its development. We use multi-angle light sheet microscopy to image and analyze the full 3D morphology of the imaginal wing disc tissue at timepoints during its development. In early stages, the tissue folds in a characteristic and robust way. We show, using high resolution electron microscopy and genetic perturbations, that apical extracellular matrix is critical to maintain the correct folded architecture and that its removal is required for unfolding at the next stage of development. Further, we show how the future blade region of the wing disc tissue reshapes itself through active rearrangements in a manner analogous to shape-programmable materials. Our work gives new insight into the physical and genetic mechanisms guiding 3D tissue morphogenesis during animal development.