ArticleeLife2017
Organ sculpting by patterned extracellular matrix stiffness.
Article in eLife, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 103 papers.
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Who cites it
103 citing papers in PubMed, 186 citations in OpenAlex.
- Initiation of rotational collective migration inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- The role of geometry in morphogenesis.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2026Review
- Model recapitulates regenerative limb blastema formation through local softening of the wounded epithelium.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Artificial Intelligence-Aided Microfluidic Cell Culture Systems.Biosensors · 2025Review
- Rotational migration in human pancreatic ductal organoids depends on actin and myosin activity.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Basement membrane structure and function: Relating biology to mechanics.Matrix biology : journal of the International Society for Matrix Biology · 2025Review
- A switch in collagen expression regulates cessation of distal tip cell migration inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Collective migration modes in development, tissue repair and cancer.Nature reviews. Molecular cell biology · 2025Review
- Rotational migration in human pancreatic ductal organoids depends on actin and myosin activity.ArXiv · 2025Article
- Differential tissue deformability underlies fluid pressure-driven shape divergence of the avian embryonic brain and spinal cord.Developmental cell · 2025Article
- Tissue geometry and mechanochemical feedback initiate rotational migration inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- A complex relationship between the architecture of the basement membrane, its mechanical properties, and its ability to shape the Drosophila egg.Matrix biology : journal of the International Society for Matrix Biology · 2025Article
- Basement membranes at a glance.Journal of cell science · 2025Review
- The life cycle of type IV collagen.Matrix biology : journal of the International Society for Matrix Biology · 2025Review
- Polyploidy promotes transformation of epithelial cells into nonprofessional phagocytes.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Beyond classical collagen: basement membrane collagen IV in age-associated lung diseases.European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society · 2025Review
- Serotonergic neurons regulate the Drosophila vascular niche to control immune stress hematopoiesis.Nature communications · 2025Article
- A collagen IV fluorophore knock-in toolkit reveals trimer diversity in C. elegans basement membranes.The Journal of cell biology · 2025Article
- Shaping epithelial tissues by stem cell mechanics in development and cancer.Nature reviews. Molecular cell biology · 2025Review
- Basement membrane patterning by spatial deployment of a secretion-regulating protease.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
43 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
How organ-shaping mechanical imbalances are generated is a central question of morphogenesis, with existing paradigms focusing on asymmetric force generation within cells. We show here that organs can be sculpted instead by patterning anisotropic resistance within their extracellular matrix (ECM). Using direct biophysical measurements of elongating Drosophila egg chambers, we document robust mechanical anisotropy in the ECM-based basement membrane (BM) but not in the underlying epithelium. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) on wild-type BM in vivo reveals an anterior-posterior (A-P) symmetric stiffness gradient, which fails to develop in elongation-defective mutants. Genetic manipulation shows that the BM is instructive for tissue elongation and the determinant is relative rather than absolute stiffness, creating differential resistance to isotropic tissue expansion. The stiffness gradient requires morphogen-like signaling to regulate BM incorporation, as well as planar-polarized organization to homogenize it circumferentially. Our results demonstrate how fine mechanical patterning in the ECM can guide cells to shape an organ.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.