Fig. 1: NC cells reduce their stiffness at the onset of CCM in vivo.
From: Cell clusters softening triggers collective cell migration in vivo
a, Diagram represents a cross-section of a X. laevis embryo showing the development of NC (HM, head mesoderm; ML, mediolateral; AP, anteroposterior; DV, dorso-ventral). Cephalic or cranial NC originates from ectoderm at the border of the neural plate and their CCM is triggered by stiffening of the head mesoderm, the NC migratory substrate. b, Schematic showing the regions measured by iAFM in wild-type or treated embryos, black arrows point to the recorded regions. c, Spread of data for each condition as stated in the figure, red lines represent the mean and whiskers the standard deviation (s.d.) (two-tailed t-test ****P < 0.0001, ***P = 0.0004, CI = 95%, nnon-migratory mesoderm = 12, nmigratory mesoderm = 11, nnon-migratory NC = 11, nmigratory NC = 12 embryos; 64 indentations were performed per embryo). d, Top left inset in the graph correspond to a simplified representation of our mathematical model used to obtain Rg2. Briefly, the behaviour of cells (which are connected between them, red dots, and connected to the substrate, green dots) was simulated at varying stiffness values when spreading on a substrate of fixed stiffness (magenta). The result of these simulations is shown as a chart were Rg2 calculations under different Esub/Ecell regimes are presented, lines represent Rg2 over time. e, Comparison of in silico (shaded blue lines) and ex vivo (shaded black lines) Rg2 calculations (Esub/Ecell > 1 in both conditions). Inset showing potential outcomes of Rg2 ≅ tγ as an output of cell directionality; directionality extracted from in silico (solid blue lines) and ex vivo (solid black lines) Rg2 ≅ tγ are shown.
