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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 3: Tissue Mechanics I

BP 3.5: Vortrag

Montag, 9. März 2026, 10:45–11:00, BAR/0205

Elastic coupling between nucleus and cell shape drives a mechanical transition in epithelial architecture — •Ian D. Estabrook¹, Anne Rosfelter², Yu-Chiun Wang², and Anna Erzberger¹ — ¹European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Heidelberg, Germany — ²RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research, Kobe, Japan

As the largest organelle, the cell nucleus can affect the shape, spatial organisation and mechanics of cells in a variety of tissue contexts. Despite extensive studies on the molecular mechanisms underlying nuclear positioning and mechanics, it remains unclear whether the nucleus actively controls tissue architecture.

Here, we combine elasticity theory and the Drosophila blastoderm stage embryo as a generic experimental model to investigate the mechanical role of nuclei on epithelial organisation.

By developing a general method that integrates mechanical and geometrical properties extracted from imaging data, we show that from elastic coupling between nuclei and the cell surface, a mechanically driven phase transition emerges between simple columnar and pseudostratified tissue architectures. Genetic and optogenetic experimental perturbations provide evidence supporting such coupling and confirm the predicted transitions following changes in mechanical and geometric parameters.

Our work identifies a novel mechanical role of nuclear elasticity, independent of specialised machineries and may represent a general, generic mechanism controlling emergence of tissue level structures.

Keywords: Epithelial development; Elastic Modelling; Cell Nucleus; Self-assembly; Image analysis