Video force microscopy reveals the mechanics of ventral furrow invagination in Drosophila.

ABSTRACT: The absence of tools for mapping the forces that drive morphogenetic movements in embryos has impeded our understanding of animal development. Here we describe a unique approach, video force microscopy (VFM), that allows detailed, dynamic force maps to be produced from time-lapse images. The forces at work in an embryo are considered to be decomposed into active and passive elements, where active forces originate from contributions (e.g., actomyosin contraction) that do mechanical work to the system and passive ones (e.g., viscous cytoplasm) that dissipate energy. In the present analysis, the effects of all passive components are considered to be subsumed by an effective cytoplasmic viscosity, and the driving forces are resolved into equivalent forces along the edges of the polygonal bound

SUBMITTER: Brodland GW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3009801 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature