Physical aspects of Drosophila Gastrulation

生物体及其器官和组织的正常功能要求它们具有特定的 形状这种形状是如何确定和维持的是生物学中的一个基本问题。在 动物的形状是通过形态发生过程确定的， 组织重塑事件导致最终的身体计划。尽管长期以来一直在努力 了解形态发生的物理机制，这些机制仍然 仍然在很大程度上未知。 在过去，大量参与调节形态发生的分子参与者 被详细地鉴定和描述。相比之下，通过物理机制 由各种分子共同决定的组织动力学仍然很差 明白物理学的基本考虑意味着，为了完全确定 形态发生变化的机制，绝对需要两条信息：（1） 驱动组织变形的主动力的知识，以及（2）材料的知识 组织的性质。以果蝇原肠胚形成为模型， 生物物理，分子和建模方法，我们提出了一种方法，足以确定 两者通过这种方式，我们预计能够首次完全描述 这是一个被研究得最多的形态发生事件背后的物理原理。两者 这里开发的技术和一般方法应该适用于各种各样的 组织形态发生过程。

The proper function of organisms, their organs, and their tissues requires them to have specific shape. How this shape is specified and maintained is a fundamental question in biology. In animals, the shape is determined through the process of morphogenesis, a concerted sequence of tissue remodeling events leading up to the final body plan. Despite a long-standing effort to understand the physical mechanisms that underlie morphogenesis, these mechanisms still remain largely unknown. In the past, a large number of molecular players involved in regulating morphogenesis have been identified and characterized in great detail. In contrast, physical mechanisms through which the various molecular players collectively determine the tissue dynamics remain poorly understood. Basic considerations from physics imply that in order to completely determine the mechanism of a morphogenetic change, two pieces of information are absolutely required: (1) the knowledge of active forces that drive tissue deformation, and (2) the knowledge of material properties of the tissue. Using Drosophila gastrulation as a model, and by combining biophysical, molecular, and modeling methods, we propose an approach sufficient to determine both. In this way, we anticipate being able to for the first time completely characterize the physical principles that underlie one of the most studied morphogenetic events. Both the techniques and general approach developed here should be applicable to a wide variety of tissue morphogenesis processes.