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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 18: Active Matter III (joint session BP/CPP/DY)

DY 18.4: Vortrag

Dienstag, 10. März 2026, 10:15–10:30, BAR/SCHÖ

Cytoskeletal oscillations drive large-scale flows and nuclear organization in early embryonic systems. — •Lara Koehler, Elissavet Sandaltzopoulou, and Jan Brugués — Physics Of Life, TU Dresden

Synchronization drives early embryonic development, enabling simultaneous cell divisions and the spatial organization of nuclei within the embryo. In organisms such as Xenopus, Drosophila, and zebrafish, mitotic waves coordinate cell cycles across distances that exceed diffusion limits, guided by a chemical oscillator. At the same time, global cytoplasmic flows in these syncytial tissues contribute to the large-scale self-organization of nuclei, yet the coupling between biochemical signaling and cytoskeletal mechanics that underlies these directed flows remains poorly understood. Here, we relax the geometric constraints of the embryo and investigate nuclear dynamics in Xenopus egg extracts and complementary simulations. We show that the periodic polymerization and depolymerization of microtubule asters are sufficient to generate robust large-scale directed flows, even though the asters are intrinsically isotropic. Furthermore, we demonstrate that cell division stabilizes short-range order in a global synchronized system. Together, these findings reveal a minimal physical mechanism by which cytoskeletal dynamics and biochemical oscillations jointly organize flows and patterns, with implications for understanding the emergent principles that shape early development across species.

Keywords: Collective effect; Self-organization; Oscillating matter; Cytoplasm; Embryogenesis