Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Cell-to-cell heterogeneity in Sox2 and Brachyury expression ratios guides progenitor destiny by controlling their motility.

Michèle Romanos, Guillaume Allio, Léa Combres, Francois Médevielle, Nathalie Escalas, Cathy Soula, Ben Steventon, Ariane Trescases, Bertrand Bénazéraf
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.18.388611
Michèle Romanos
1Centre de Biologie du Développement (CBD), Centre de Biologie Intégrative (CBI), Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, Toulouse, France
2Institut de Mathématiques de Toulouse UMR 5219, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, 31062 Toulouse Cedex 9
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Guillaume Allio
1Centre de Biologie du Développement (CBD), Centre de Biologie Intégrative (CBI), Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, Toulouse, France
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Léa Combres
1Centre de Biologie du Développement (CBD), Centre de Biologie Intégrative (CBI), Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, Toulouse, France
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Francois Médevielle
1Centre de Biologie du Développement (CBD), Centre de Biologie Intégrative (CBI), Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, Toulouse, France
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Nathalie Escalas
1Centre de Biologie du Développement (CBD), Centre de Biologie Intégrative (CBI), Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, Toulouse, France
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Cathy Soula
1Centre de Biologie du Développement (CBD), Centre de Biologie Intégrative (CBI), Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, Toulouse, France
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Ben Steventon
3Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EH, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Ariane Trescases
2Institut de Mathématiques de Toulouse UMR 5219, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, 31062 Toulouse Cedex 9
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Bertrand Bénazéraf
1Centre de Biologie du Développement (CBD), Centre de Biologie Intégrative (CBI), Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, Toulouse, France
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: bertrand.benazeraf@univ-tlse3.fr
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Supplementary material
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

Although cell-to-cell heterogeneity in gene and protein expression within cell populations has been widely documented, we know little about its potential biological functions. We addressed this issue by studying progenitors that populate the posterior region of the vertebrate embryos, a cell population known for its capacity to self-renew or to contribute to the formation of the neural tube and paraxial mesoderm tissues. Posterior progenitors are characterized by the co-expression of Sox2 and Brachyury (Bra), two transcription factors related to neural and mesodermal lineages, respectively. In this study, we show that the respective levels of Sox2 and Bra proteins display a high degree of variability among posterior progenitors of the quail embryo. By developing forced expression and downregulation approaches, we further provide evidence that the value of the Sox2-to-Bra ratio in a given progenitor directs its choice of staying in place or exit the progenitor zone to generate neural or mesodermal cells. Time-lapse imaging together with mathematical modeling then reveal that variations of the Sox2-to-Bra ratio confer these cells heterogeneous motile behaviors. While high Bra levels display high motile properties that push cells to join the mesoderm, high levels of Sox2 tend to inhibit cell movement making cells get integrated into the neural tube. Our work thus provides evidence that the spatial heterogeneity of posterior progenitors, with regards to their relative contents of Sox2 and Bra and thus to their motile properties, is fundamental to maintain a pool of resident progenitors while others segregate to contribute to tissue formation. More broadly, our work reveals that heterogeneity among a population of progenitor cells is critical to ensure robust multi-tissue morphogenesis.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • ↵* Co-first authors

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted January 13, 2021.
Download PDF

Supplementary Material

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Cell-to-cell heterogeneity in Sox2 and Brachyury expression ratios guides progenitor destiny by controlling their motility.
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Cell-to-cell heterogeneity in Sox2 and Brachyury expression ratios guides progenitor destiny by controlling their motility.
Michèle Romanos, Guillaume Allio, Léa Combres, Francois Médevielle, Nathalie Escalas, Cathy Soula, Ben Steventon, Ariane Trescases, Bertrand Bénazéraf
bioRxiv 2020.11.18.388611; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.18.388611
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Cell-to-cell heterogeneity in Sox2 and Brachyury expression ratios guides progenitor destiny by controlling their motility.
Michèle Romanos, Guillaume Allio, Léa Combres, Francois Médevielle, Nathalie Escalas, Cathy Soula, Ben Steventon, Ariane Trescases, Bertrand Bénazéraf
bioRxiv 2020.11.18.388611; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.18.388611

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Developmental Biology
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (2420)
  • Biochemistry (4779)
  • Bioengineering (3319)
  • Bioinformatics (14637)
  • Biophysics (6620)
  • Cancer Biology (5158)
  • Cell Biology (7405)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (4343)
  • Ecology (6864)
  • Epidemiology (2057)
  • Evolutionary Biology (9893)
  • Genetics (7331)
  • Genomics (9502)
  • Immunology (4540)
  • Microbiology (12644)
  • Molecular Biology (4928)
  • Neuroscience (28245)
  • Paleontology (199)
  • Pathology (803)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (1384)
  • Physiology (2014)
  • Plant Biology (4482)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (975)
  • Synthetic Biology (1295)
  • Systems Biology (3907)
  • Zoology (722)