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Annemiek Cornelissen, Matière et Systèmes Complexes, Université Denis Diderot, Paris
Gastrovascular morphogenesis in the jellyfish Aurelia Aurita
Morphogenesis of living systems is controlled by a complex of processes in which also mechanical forces plays a role. Mechanical forces can contribute either on a cellular scale by impacting on the signaling pathways, or on a tissue scale affecting the cell movements and deformations (compression, extension, intercalation, and rearrangement etc).
Aurelia Aurita has a relatively simple branched gastrovascular pattern. We aim to understand how mechanical self-organized processes are involved in the morphogenesis of this typical vascular structure. The canals grow in a monolayer membrane of cells, the endoderm. We observed that as soon as the jellyfish has obtained its circular shape, canals sprout off from the ring canal and grow at the tip by accumulation and stacking of endodermal cells followed by differentiation of the endodermal cells into canal cells. We have challenged the hypothesis that these processes are induced by compressive constraints in the endoderm generated during each muscle contraction of the jellyfish. During my presentation I will show you our experimental and numerical simulation results.
Séminaire de Biophysique ENS-ESPCI :
Organisation Team
ESPCI : Olivia DU ROURE (PMMH), Clément NIZAK (Lab. Biochimie)
ENS : Nicolas DESPRAT (LPS), Thierry MORA (LPS)
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