Ethological dynamics in diorama environments

Animal embryos begin locomotion in parallel with morphogenesis during the later stages of development. Although tensile and compressive stresses are generated in tissues due to motion, the cells constructing organs avoid the confounding of internal forces necessary for morphogenesis and external forces dependent on motion. This mechanism presents a conundrum in developmental biology, largely due to limitations in methods for quantitative perturbation of rapid body deformations and high-speed imaging of moving embryos. We tackle this problem using the Xenopus embryo, which starts rapid bending movements for swimming immediately after hatching, concurrent with organ morphogenesis. Due to its resilience and large body size, the Xenopus embryo is an ideal model for mechanical perturbations. We will establish two diorama environments to study cells constructing complex organ shapes: an in vivo environment where the whole embryonic body undergoes artificial high-speed bending, and an in vitro environment with a chamber designed to apply high-speed deformations to tissue explants. Using these environments, we aim to elucidate the algorithms by which cells evade the effects of the rapid deformations of their environment.