Three-dimensional chiral morphodynamics of chemomechanical active shells

Morphogenesis of active shells such as cells is a fundamental chemomechanical process that often exhibits three-dimensional (3D) large deformations and chemical pattern dynamics simultaneously. Here, we establish a chemomechanical active shell theory accounting for mechanical feedback and biochemica...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2022-12, Vol.119 (49), p.e2206159119-e2206159119
Main Authors: Yin, Sifan, Li, Bo, Feng, Xi-Qiao
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Actin Cytoskeleton
Actomyosin
Bifurcations
Biochemistry
Broken symmetry
Cell Differentiation
Chemical Phenomena
Chemistry, Physical
Deformation
Elastic shells
Embryogenesis
Embryonic growth stage
Feedback
Morphogenesis
Oscillations
Physical Sciences
Polarity
RhoA protein
Shell theory
Shells
Standing waves
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Summary:Morphogenesis of active shells such as cells is a fundamental chemomechanical process that often exhibits three-dimensional (3D) large deformations and chemical pattern dynamics simultaneously. Here, we establish a chemomechanical active shell theory accounting for mechanical feedback and biochemical regulation to investigate the symmetry-breaking and 3D chiral morphodynamics emerging in the cell cortex. The active bending and stretching of the elastic shells are regulated by biochemical signals like actomyosin and RhoA, which, in turn, exert mechanical feedback on the biochemical events via deformation-dependent diffusion and inhibition. We show that active deformations can trigger chemomechanical bifurcations, yielding pulse spiral waves and global oscillations, which, with increasing mechanical feedback, give way to traveling or standing waves subsequently. Mechanical feedback is also found to contribute to stabilizing the polarity of emerging patterns, thus ensuring robust morphogenesis. Our results reproduce and unravel the experimentally observed solitary and multiple spiral patterns, which initiate asymmetric cleavage in and starfish embryogenesis. This study underscores the crucial roles of mechanical feedback in cell development and also suggests a chemomechanical framework allowing for 3D large deformation and chemical signaling to explore complex morphogenesis in living shell-like structures.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.2206159119