Mechanical Tensions Regulate Gene Expression in the Xenopus laevis Axial Tissues.

ABSTRACT: During gastrulation and neurulation, the chordamesoderm and overlying neuroectoderm of vertebrate embryos converge under the control of a specific genetic programme to the dorsal midline, simultaneously extending along it. However, whether mechanical tensions resulting from these morphogenetic movements play a role in long-range feedback signaling that in turn regulates gene expression in the chordamesoderm and neuroectoderm is unclear. In the present work, by using a model of artificially stretched explants of Xenopus midgastrula embryos and full-transcriptome sequencing, we identified genes with altered expression in response to external mechanical stretching. Importantly, mechanically activated genes appeared to be expressed during normal development in the trunk, i.e., in the st

SUBMITTER: Eroshkin FM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10815341 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature