2007/06/25 by Elijah Flenner, Françoise Marga, Francoise Marga +9
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Environmental Science · Medicine · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Biofield Effects and Biophysics #Biological Physics (physics.bio-ph) #Cell Behavior (q-bio.CB) #Computational Physics (physics.comp-ph) #FOS: Biological sciences #FOS: Physical sciences #Physiological and biochemical adaptations #Tissues and Organs (q-bio.TO) #physics.bio-ph #physics.comp-ph #q-bio.CB #q-bio.TO
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0706.3693
24 pages, 10 figures, To appear in Current Topics in Developmental Biology
arxiv created 2007/06/25 · openalex publication_date 2007/06/25 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
A distinguishing feature of a multicellular living system is that it operates at various scales, from the intracellular to organismal. Very little is known at present on how tissue level properties are related to cell and subcellular properties. Modern measurement techniques provide quantitative results at both the intracellular and tissue level, but not on the connection between these. In the present work we outline a framework to address this connection. We specifically concentrate on the morphogenetic process of tissue fusion, by following the coalescence of two contiguous multicellular aggregates. The time evolution of this process can accurately be described by the theory of viscous liquids. We also study fusion by Monte Carlo simulations and a novel Cellular Particle Dynamics (CPD) model, which is similar to the earlier introduced Subcellular Element Model (Newman, 2005). Using the combination of experiments, theory and modeling we are able to relate the measured tissue level biophysical quantities to subcellular parameters. Our approach has validity beyond the particular morphogenetic process considered here and provides a general way to relate biophysical properties across scales.