"Cell shape noise and morphogenetic attractors control cell shape change during epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition"

Date

Oct 22, 2024

Time

11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Speaker

Iskra Yanakieva and Wolfram Pönisch

Affiliation

University of Cambridge

Language

en

Main Topic

Biologie

Host

Carl Modes

Description

Cell shape changes play a fundamental role in development and disease, often accompanying transitions in cell state. Despite the importance of cellular shape for biological function, most studies investigating state transitions focus on gene expression changes. Here, we combine morphometric analysis with stochastic inference, mathematical modelling, and molecular perturbations to interrogate cell shape dynamics during epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT). We extract a low-dimensional representation of the morphogenetic landscape associated with EMT and show that EMT-associated cell spreading corresponds to a transition between cell shape attractors within this landscape. Strikingly, we observe a peak in cell shape noise at the time of spreading. Theoretical modelling and experimental perturbations show that shape noise plays a functional role in cell spreading, accelerating the transition between shape attractors. Together, our study characterizes the morphogenetic landscape of EMT-associated cell spreading, a framework that will be widely applicable to investigate shape changes in physiology and disease. Overall, our findings reveal that cellular noise is not merely a signature of cell shape changes but influences how they occur, offering new insights into the functional role of noise.

Last modified: Oct 22, 2024, 7:39:28 AM