Adherens Junction Length during Tissue Contraction Is Controlled by the Mechanosensitive Activity of Actomyosin and Junctional Recycling

During epithelial contraction, cells generate forces to constrict their surface and, concurrently, fine-tune the length of their adherens junctions to ensure force transmission. While many studies have focused on understanding force generation, little is known on how junctional length is controlled. Here, we show that, during amnioserosa contraction in Drosophila dorsal closure, adherens junctions reduce their length in coordination with the shrinkage of apical cell area, maintaining a nearly constant junctional straightness. We reveal that junctional straightness and integrity depend on the endocytic machinery and on the mechanosensitive activity of the actomyosin cytoskeleton. On one hand, upon junctional stretch and decrease in E-cadherin density, actomyosin relocalizes from the medial area to the junctions, thus maintaining junctional integrity. On the other hand, when junctions have excess material and ruffles, junction removal is enhanced, and high junctional straightness and tension are restored. These two mechanisms control junctional length and integrity during morphogenesis.

Cell Boundary Elongation by Non-autonomous Contractility in Cell Oscillation

Throughout development, tissues exhibit dynamic cell deformation, which is characterized by the integration of cell boundary contraction and/or elongation. Such changes ultimately establish tissue morphology and function [1-5]. In comparison to cell boundary contraction, which is predominantly driven by non-muscle myosin II (MyoII)-dependent contraction [6-9], the mechanisms of cell boundary elongation remain elusive. We explored the dynamics of the amnioserosa, which is known to exhibit cell shape oscillation [10-15], as a model system to study the subcellular-level mechanics that spatiotemporally evolve during Drosophila dorsal closure. Here we show that cell boundary elongation occurs through a combination of a non-autonomous active process and an autonomous process. The former is driven by a transient change in the level of MyoII in the neighboring cells that pull the vertices, whereas the latter is governed by the relaxation of junctional tension. By monitoring cell boundary deformation during live imaging, junctional tension at the specific phase of cell boundary oscillation, e.g., contraction or elongation, was probed by laser ablation. Junctional tension during boundary elongation is lower than during the other phase of oscillation. We extended our tension measurements to non-invasively estimate a tension map across the tissue, and found a correlation between junctional tension and vinculin dynamics at the cell junction. We propose that the medial actomyosin network is used as an entity to both contract and elongate the cell boundary. Moreover, our findings raise a possibility that the level of vinculin at the cell boundary could be used to approximate junctional tension in vivo.

A minimal vertex model explains how the amnioserosa avoids fluidization during Drosophila dorsal closure

Dorsal closure is a process that occurs during embryogenesis of Drosophila melanogaster. During dorsal closure, the amnioserosa (AS), a one-cell thick epithelial tissue that fills the dorsal opening, shrinks as the lateral epidermis sheets converge and eventually merge. During this process, both shape index and aspect ratio of amnioserosa cells increase markedly. The standard 2-dimensional vertex model, which successfully describes tissue sheet mechanics in multiple contexts, would in this case predict that the tissue should fluidize via cell neighbor changes. Surprisingly, however, the amnioserosa remains an elastic solid with no such events. We here present a minimal extension to the vertex model that explains how the amnioserosa can achieve this unexpected behavior. We show that continuous shrinkage of the preferred cell perimeter and cell perimeter polydispersity lead to the retention of the solid state of the amnioserosa. Our model accurately captures measured cell shape and orientation changes and predicts nonmonotonic junction tension that we confirm with laser ablation experiments.

Minimal vertex model explains how the amnioserosa avoids fluidization during Drosophila dorsal closure

Dorsal closure is a process that occurs during embryogenesis of Drosophila melanogaster. During dorsal closure, the amnioserosa (AS), a one-cell thick epithelial tissue that fills the dorsal opening, shrinks as the lateral epidermis sheets converge and eventually merge. During this process, the aspect ratio of amnioserosa cells increases markedly. The standard 2-dimensional vertex model, which successfully describes tissue sheet mechanics in multiple contexts, would in this case predict that the tissue should fluidize via cell neighbor changes. Surprisingly, however, the amnioserosa remains an elastic solid with no such events. We here present a minimal extension to the vertex model that explains how the amnioserosa can achieve this unexpected behavior. We show that continuous shrink-age of the preferred cell perimeter and cell perimeter polydispersity lead to the retention of the solid state of the amnioserosa. Our model accurately captures measured cell shape and orientation changes and predicts non-monotonic junction tension that we confirm with laser ablation experiments.