Optogenetic BMP4 models symmetry breaking and primitive streak formation in hPSCs
Streletskaia, A.; Bashor, C. J.; Warmflash, A.
Show abstract
Gastrulation begins when the epiblast epithelium breaks symmetry to form the primitive streak, but current in vitro models neither fully capture this process nor separate its mechanical and chemical inputs. Here, we introduce LightBMP, an optogenetic platform that enables spatiotemporally programmable BMP4 expression in human pluripotent stem cells. Dose and duration control reveal a sustained low-BMP regime, inaccessible to recombinant ligand, that specifies mesoderm. Spatially programmed BMP4 sources in uniform cultures mimic the radial organization of 2D gastruloids, showing that mechan-ical context and edge sensing are not required for patterning. In micropatterned colo-nies, light-defined sources break symmetry to generate a stripe-shaped, primitive-streak-like domain where cells acquire multiple mesodermal fates and undergo directed migration. Together, these results show that spatial control of a single morphogen source is sufficient to drive symmetry breaking and primitive-streak-like patterning, independent of edge constraints.
Matching journals
The top 4 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.
Similar papers in this journal
- Single-cell RNA-seq of differentiating iPS cells reveals dynamic genetic effects on gene expression 95%
- WUSCHEL acts as a rheostat on the auxin pathway to maintain apical stem cells in Arabidopsis 94%
- Polarity signaling ensures epidermal homeostasis by coupling cellular mechanics and genomic integrity 94%
Similar papers in this journal
Similar papers in this journal
- Mechanical Coupling Coordinates the Co-elongation of Axial and Paraxial Tissues in Avian Embryos 95%
- Differential expression and homotypic enrichment of a classic Cadherin directs tissue-level contractile asymmetry during neural tube closure 94%
- Lumen expansion facilitates epiblast-primitive endoderm fate specification in the mouse blastocyst formation. 94%
Similar papers in this journal
- Growth factor-mediated coupling between lineage size and cell fate choice underlies robustness of mammalian development 95%
- Cell-state transitions and collective cell movement generate an endoderm-like region in gastruloids 94%
- Efficient differentiation of human primordial germ cells through geometric control reveals a key role for NODAL signaling 94%
"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.