Hydraulic fracturing and active coarsening position the lumen of the mouse blastocyst

Julien G Dumortier (1) , Mathieu Le Verge-Serandour (2) , Anna Francesca Tortorelli (1) , Annette Mielke (1) , Ludmilla de Plater (1) , Hervé Turlier (2) , Jean-Léon Maître (1)

1 Génétique et Biologie du Développement
2 LBCMCP - Laboratoire de Biologie Cellulaire et Moléculaire du Contrôle de la Prolifération

During mouse preimplantation development, the formation of the blastocoel, a fluid-filled lumen, breaks the radial symmetry of the blastocyst. What controls the formation and positioning of this basolateral lumen remains obscure. We find that accumulation of pressurized fluid fractures cell-cell contacts into hundreds of micron-size lumens. Microlumens eventually discharge their volumes into a single dominant lumen, which we model as a process akin to Ostwald ripening, underlying the coarsening of foams. Using chimeric mutant embryos, we tune the hydraulic fracturing of cell-cell contacts and steer the coarsening of microlumens, allowing us to successfully manipulate the final position of the lumen. We conclude that hydraulic fracturing of cell-cell contacts followed by contractility-directed coarsening of microlumens sets the first axis of symmetry of the mouse embryo.

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Julien G Dumortier, Mathieu Le Verge-Serandour, Anna Francesca Tortorelli, Annette Mielke, Ludmilla de Plater, et al.. Hydraulic fracturing and active coarsening position the lumen of the mouse blastocyst. Science, 2019, 365 (6452), pp.465-468. ⟨10.1126/science.aaw7709⟩. ⟨hal-02315507⟩