Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40595575›Full record

ArticleNature communications2025

Emergence of cellular nematic order is a conserved feature of gastrulation in animal embryos.

Xin Li, Robert J Huebner, Margot L K Williams, Jessica Sawyer, Mark Peifer, John B Wallingford, D Thirumalai

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature communications, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Xin LiDepartment of Chemistry, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA. xinlee0@gmail.com.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2510-2236
Robert J HuebnerDepartment of Molecular Bioscience, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA. roberth@utexas.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8778-9689
Margot L K WilliamsCenter for Precision Environmental Health & Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9704-6301
Jessica SawyerDepartment of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
Mark PeiferDepartment of Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1412-3987
John B WallingfordDepartment of Molecular Bioscience, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6280-8625
D ThirumalaiDepartment of Chemistry, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1801-5924

Funding

Regulating cell fate and shaping the body plan during morphogenesis and their alteration during oncogenesisR35GM118096 · NIGMS · UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL · PI Mark A. Peifer · 2016 to 2026
$6.5M
Molecular and cell biological basis of convergent extensionR01HD099191 · NICHD · UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN · PI John B Wallingford · 2020 to 2026
$2.7M
Molecular drivers of tissue-specific morphogenetic programsR01HD104784 · NICHD · BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE · PI Margot L.K. Williams · 2022 to 2026
$2.2M
NICHD NIH HHS R01 HD099191NICHD NIH HHS R01 HD104784NIGMS NIH HHS R35 GM118096Welch Foundation F-0019
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Cells undergo dramatic morphological changes during embryogenesis, yet how these changes affect the formation of ordered tissues remains elusive. Here, we show that a phase transition leading to the formation of a nematic liquid crystal state during gastrulation in the development of embryos of fish, frogs, and fruit flies occurs by a common mechanism despite substantial differences between these evolutionarily distant animals. Importantly, nematic order forms early before any discernible changes in the shapes of cells. All three species exhibit similar propagation of the nematic phase, reminiscent of nucleation and growth mechanisms. The spatial correlations in the nematic phase in the notochord region are long-ranged and follow a similar power-law decay (

Indexed as

Embryo, NonmammalianGastrulationLiquid CrystalsAnimalsCell AdhesionCell PolarityDrosophila melanogasterEmbryonic DevelopmentModels, BiologicalNotochordZebrafish

Identifiers

PMID40595575
PMCPMC12217158

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

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.