
The author challenges the conventional belief that apical myosin drives cellular deformation, proposing an alternative model based on cell membrane elasticity and endocytosis to explain apical constriction.


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Apical constriction is a basic mechanism for epithelial morphogenesis, making columnar cells into wedge shape and bending a flat cell sheet. It has long been thought that an apically localized myosin generates a contractile force and drives the cell deformation. However, when we tested the heighten apical surface contractility in a cellular Potts model simulation, the constriction increased a pressure inside the cell and pushed its lateral surface outward, making the cell into not the wedge shape but instead a drop shape. To keep the lateral surface straight, we considered an alternative model in which the cell shape was determined by cell membrane elasticity and endocytosis, and the increased pressure is balanced among the cells. The cellular Potts model simulation succeeded in reproducing the apical constriction, and it also suggested that a too strong apical surface tension might prevent the tissue invagination.

### Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Apical constriction requires patterned apical surface remodeling to synchronize cellular deformation

understanding-apical-constriction-mechanisms-in-epithelial-tissue-morphogenesis


Understanding Apical Constriction Mechanisms in Epithelial Tissue Morphogenesis
