ArticleCommunications biology2021
Spatiotemporal dynamics of single cell stiffness in the early developing ascidian chordate embryo.
Article in Communications biology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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13 citing papers in PubMed, 35 citations in OpenAlex.
- High-throughput mechanomic screening reveals novel regulators of single-cell mechanics.Biophysical journal · 2026Article
- Cell fate acquisition at a de novo developmental boundary in the maize leaf.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- EmbSAM: cell boundary localization and Segment Anything Model for fast images of developing embryos.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Mapping single-cell rheology of ascidian embryos in the cleavage stages using AFM.Biophysical journal · 2025Article
- Cell lineage-resolved embryonic morphological map reveals signaling associated with cell fate and size asymmetry.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Rapid Stiffness Mapping in Soft Biologic Tissues With Micrometer Resolution Using Optical Multifrequency Time-Harmonic Elastography.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Characterizing Cellular Physiological States with Three-Dimensional Shape Descriptors for Cell Membranes.Membranes · 2024Article
- Temporospatial hierarchy and allele-specific expression of zygotic genome activation revealed by distant interspecific urochordate hybrids.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Morphogen-driven differentiation is precluded by physical confinement in human iPSCs spheroids.Frontiers in bioengineering and biotechnology · 2024Article
- Embryo mechanics cartography: inference of 3D force atlases from fluorescence microscopy.Nature methods · 2023Article
- Mechanical properties of epithelial cells in domes investigated using atomic force microscopy.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2023Article
- Changes in nanomechanical properties of single neuroblastoma cells as a model for oxygen and glucose deprivation (OGD).Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Delineating the mechanisms and design principles ofComputational and structural biotechnology journal · 2022Review
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
During the developmental processes of embryos, cells undergo massive deformation and division that are regulated by mechanical cues. However, little is known about how embryonic cells change their mechanical properties during different cleavage stages. Here, using atomic force microscopy, we investigated the stiffness of cells in ascidian embryos from the fertilised egg to the stage before gastrulation. In both animal and vegetal hemispheres, we observed a Rho kinase (ROCK)-independent cell stiffening that the cell stiffness exhibited a remarkable increase at the timing of cell division where cortical actin filaments were organized. Furthermore, in the vegetal hemisphere, we observed another mechanical behaviour, i.e., a ROCK-associated cell stiffening, which was retained even after cell division or occurred without division and propagated sequentially toward adjacent cells, displaying a characteristic cell-to-cell mechanical variation. The results indicate that the mechanical properties of embryonic cells are regulated at the single cell level in different germ layers.
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