Work

A scheme for 3-dimensional morphological reconstruction and force inference in the early C. elegans embryo

Year: 2018

Type: article

Abstract: In this study, we present a scheme for the reconstruction of cellular morphology and the inference of mechanical forces in the early C. elegans embryo. We have developed and bench-marked a morphological reconstruction scheme that transforms flourescence-based in vivo images of membranes into a point cloud of smoothed surface patches, which facilitates an accurate estimation of membrane curvatures and the angles between membranes. Assuming an isotropic and homogeneous distribution of tensions along individual membranes, we infer a pattern of forces that are 7% deviated from force balance at edges, and 10% deviated from the Young-Laplace relation across membranes. We demonstrate the stability of our inference scheme via a sensitivity analysis, and the reproducibility of our image-analysis and force inference pipelines.

Source: PLoS ONE

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0199151

Authors: Muzhi Xu, Yicong Wu, Hari Shroff, Min Wu, Madhav Mani

Institutions: Northwestern University, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Language: English

Topic: Cellular Mechanics and Interactions

Subfield: Cell Biology

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,382

Funders: Northwestern University, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering