Recording morphogen signals reveals mechanisms underlying gastruloid symmetry breaking.

ABSTRACT: Aggregates of stem cells can break symmetry and self-organize into embryo-like structures with complex morphologies and gene expression patterns. Mechanisms including reaction-diffusion Turing patterns and cell sorting have been proposed to explain symmetry breaking but distinguishing between these candidate mechanisms of self-organization requires identifying which early asymmetries evolve into subsequent tissue patterns and cell fates. Here we use synthetic 'signal-recording' gene circuits to trace the evolution of signalling patterns in gastruloids, three-dimensional stem cell aggregates that form an anterior-posterior axis and structures resembling the mammalian primitive streak and tailbud. We find that cell sorting rearranges patchy domains of Wnt activity into a single pole that def

SUBMITTER: McNamara HM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11806519 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature