In a ‘Dispatch Article’ in Current Biology, Devany Du and Nandan L. Nerurkar (Department of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, USA) discuss how our study on the morphogenesis of creases in the rhinarial skin of cows, ferrets, and dogs reveals a new perspective on the integration of mechanical and biochemical influences on development through ‘mechanical positional information’.
- Du and Nerurkar conclude that our study “illustrates the ability of computational modeling to make problems outside the reach of model organisms more tractable, particularly when coupled with high-quality imaging data.”
- They also indicate that “the notion of mechanical positional information may help to explain the diversity of morphological outcomes that appear to rely on the same simple physical mechanism of buckling”.
- Finally, they note that “As we continue to sniff out how mechanical stimuli regulate cell behaviors in developing embryos, it will be increasingly important to consider mechanics as a positional cue alongside the more traditional views of positional information being biochemically encoded”.
More information is available in Du and Nerurkar’s Dispatch Article:
Buckling mechanics: A Nosetta Stone to understand rhinoglyphics
Devany Du and Nandan L. Nerurkar
Current Biology 34, R1137–R1157, doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.003
Our article:
Mechanical positional information guides the self-organized development of a polygonal network of creases in the skin of mammalian noses
Dagenais, Jahanbakhsh, Capitan, Jammes, Reynaud, De Juan Romero, Borrell & Milinkovitch
Current Biology 34, 5197–5212 (2024), doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.09.055