Reference:
"Occurrence of non-apical mitoses at the primitive streak, induced by relaxation of actomyosin and
acceleration of the cell cycle, contributes to cell delamination during mouse gastrulation"
Evangéline Despin-Guitard, Viviane S. Rosa, Steffen Plunder, Navrita Mathiah, Kristof Van Schoor, Eliana Nehme, Sara Merino-Aceituno, Joaquim Egea, Marta N. Shahbazi, Eric Theveneau & Isabelle Migeotte,
Nature Communications (2024).
An interactive, agent-based model to simulate epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition-like events in a short
pseudostratified epithelium.
The simulation represents primitive streak (PS)-like cells (magenta) at the center of a control epiblast
(green). The following cellular events/parameters are available:
- → Attachment to the basal line in PS cells can be turned on/off. When “off”, PS cells will detach from the basal line in an asynchronous manner between 6 to 24h of simulation time.
- → In addition, total cell cycle length, cumulative duration of G2 and M phases, contractility of springs controlling interkinetic nuclear movements (INM) and apical adhesion can be adjusted per cell type.
Note: Our scientific conclusions from the model are based on statistics obtained from thousands of
simulations
of the model shown below. Please note that in some instances, single simulations can differ substantially
from
the average behavior.
Simulation Apical side (red)
Basal side (black)
Time = 10
0h
12h
24h
36h
48h
Parameters (reset)
Attachment to basal line
PS cells
off
on
Cell cycle
Total cell cycle duration
Epiblast cells
3h
6h
PS cells
3h
6h
G2+M duration
Epiblast cells
0.5h
1h
PS cells
0.5h
1h
Contractility
Epiblast cells
PS cells
Control
All springs relaxed
INM springs relaxed
Apical springs relaxed
Note: Control settings for PS cells correspond to a partial relaxation of INM springs.