Tissue mechanics sets developmental scaling of collective cell migration
Abstract
Despite substantial variation in adult size, animals within a species maintain consistent tissue patterns and shapes, a core property known as developmental scaling or size invariance. Developmental scaling has predominantly been attributed to the scaling of morphogen gradients and gene patterns to maintain positional information and cell fate specification 1,2 . However, development also necessitates collective cell flows that reshape tissues and reposition cells 3,4 . How these flows adapt to body size remains unclear. By combining quantitative live imaging, experimental perturbations, and physical modeling in the Drosophila thorax epithelium, we address this question in the context of a fundamental process: collective cell migration. We find that migration velocity scales linearly with tissue size, accounting for size-invariant cell positioning. While gene patterning scales with tissue size and modulates force generation, it is not sufficient to ensure proper velocity scaling. Instead, tissue mechanical properties govern the dependence of migration velocity on tissue size, enabling developmental scaling within the physiological range of animal sizes. These findings uncover principles and limits of size invariance by revealing how tissue mechanics sets the scaling behavior of collective cell flows with organismal size.
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BibTeX
@misc{guirao2026tissue,
title = {{Tissue mechanics sets developmental scaling of collective cell migration}},
author = {Boris Guirao and Aurélien Villedieu and Julien Delpierre and Fabian Gärtner and Lale Alpar and Isabelle Gaugué and François Graner and Floris Bosveld and Yohanns Bellaïche},
howpublished = {BioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.64898/2026.08.19.745692},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05767882v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Tissue mechanics sets developmental scaling of collective cell migration
AU - Boris Guirao
AU - Aurélien Villedieu
AU - Julien Delpierre
AU - Fabian Gärtner
AU - Lale Alpar
AU - Isabelle Gaugué
AU - François Graner
AU - Floris Bosveld
AU - Yohanns Bellaïche
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/20
PB - BioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.08.19.745692
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05767882v1
AB - Despite substantial variation in adult size, animals within a species maintain consistent tissue patterns and shapes, a core property known as developmental scaling or size invariance. Developmental scaling has predominantly been attributed to the scaling of morphogen gradients and gene patterns to maintain positional information and cell fate specification 1,2 . However, development also necessitates collective cell flows that reshape tissues and reposition cells 3,4 . How these flows adapt to body size remains unclear. By combining quantitative live imaging, experimental perturbations, and physical modeling in the Drosophila thorax epithelium, we address this question in the context of a fundamental process: collective cell migration. We find that migration velocity scales linearly with tissue size, accounting for size-invariant cell positioning. While gene patterning scales with tissue size and modulates force generation, it is not sufficient to ensure proper velocity scaling. Instead, tissue mechanical properties govern the dependence of migration velocity on tissue size, enabling developmental scaling within the physiological range of animal sizes. These findings uncover principles and limits of size invariance by revealing how tissue mechanics sets the scaling behavior of collective cell flows with organismal size.
SN - 2692-8205
ER -