Fig. 1: Schematic illustration of the triple-layer structure of Hydra fragments and experimental observation of the initial spontaneous bending. | Communications Physics

Fig. 1: Schematic illustration of the triple-layer structure of Hydra fragments and experimental observation of the initial spontaneous bending.

From: Active laminated-plate model for spontaneous bending of Hydra tissue fragments driven by supracellular actomyosin bundles

Fig. 1

a Schematic illustration of the Hydra body plan and the triple-layer structure of Hydra fragments: ectoderm cell layer (yellow), endoderm cell layer (light yellow), and intermediate soft matrix (mesoglea). Two sets of perpendicular supracellular actomyosin bundles (red arrows) are formed on the basal sides of each epithelial layer. Interlayer slides are characterized by the misfit strains \({\epsilon }_{{{{{{{{\rm{s}}}}}}}}}^{(1)}\) and \({\epsilon }_{{{{{{{{\rm{s}}}}}}}}}^{(2)}\) of the two cell layers relative to the mesoglea layer, respectively. b Experimental observations: spontaneous bending of freshly excised Hydra (plate- and rod-like) tissue fragments to quasi-stable (equilibrium) bent shape in several minutes. Reproduced from ref. 7 with permission from Elsevier.

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