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

Ultra-fast cellular contractions in the epithelium of T. adhaerens and the “active cohesion” hypothesis

Shahaf Armon, Matthew Storm Bull, Andres Aranda-Diaz, View ORCID ProfileManu Prakash
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/258103
Shahaf Armon
1Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Matthew Storm Bull
2Department of Applied Physics, Stanford University
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Andres Aranda-Diaz
1Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Manu Prakash
1Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Manu Prakash
  • For correspondence: manup@stanford.edu
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Supplementary material
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

By definition of multi-cellularity, all animals need to keep their cells attached and intact, despite internal and external forces. Cohesion between epithelial cells provides this key feature. In order to better understand fundamental limits of this cohesion, we study the epithelium mechanics of an ultra-thin (~25 um) primitive marine animal Trichoplax adhaerens, composed essentially of two flat epithelial layers. With no known extra-cellular-matrix and no nerves or muscles, T. adhaerens was claimed the “simplest known living animal”, yet is still capable of coordinated locomotion and behavior. Here we report the discovery of the fastest epithelial cellular contractions to date to be found in T. adhaerens dorsal epithelium (50% shrinkage of apical cell area within one second, at least an order of magnitude faster than known examples). Live imaging reveals emergent contractile patterns that are mostly sporadic single-cell events, but also include propagating contraction waves across the tissue. We show that cell contraction speed can be explained by current models of non-muscle actin-myosin bundles without load, while the tissue architecture and unique mechanical properties are softening the tissue, minimizing the load on a contracting cell. We propose a hypothesis, in which the physiological role of the contraction dynamics is to avoid tissue rupture (“active cohesion”), a novel concept that can be further applied to engineering of active materials.

One Sentence Summary We report the fastest epithelial cell contractions known to date, show they fit the kinematics arising from current cytoskeletal models, and suggest the extreme tissue dynamics is a means to actively avoid rupture.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted February 16, 2018.
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.
Ultra-fast cellular contractions in the epithelium of T. adhaerens and the “active cohesion” hypothesis
(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
Ultra-fast cellular contractions in the epithelium of T. adhaerens and the “active cohesion” hypothesis
Shahaf Armon, Matthew Storm Bull, Andres Aranda-Diaz, Manu Prakash
bioRxiv 258103; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/258103
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Ultra-fast cellular contractions in the epithelium of T. adhaerens and the “active cohesion” hypothesis
Shahaf Armon, Matthew Storm Bull, Andres Aranda-Diaz, Manu Prakash
bioRxiv 258103; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/258103

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

  • Biophysics
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (3497)
  • Biochemistry (7341)
  • Bioengineering (5317)
  • Bioinformatics (20248)
  • Biophysics (9999)
  • Cancer Biology (7734)
  • Cell Biology (11291)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (6431)
  • Ecology (9943)
  • Epidemiology (2065)
  • Evolutionary Biology (13311)
  • Genetics (9358)
  • Genomics (12575)
  • Immunology (7696)
  • Microbiology (18998)
  • Molecular Biology (7432)
  • Neuroscience (40971)
  • Paleontology (300)
  • Pathology (1228)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2133)
  • Physiology (3154)
  • Plant Biology (6855)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1272)
  • Synthetic Biology (1895)
  • Systems Biology (5309)
  • Zoology (1087)