A tale of two tissues: Patterning of the epidermis through morphogens and their role in establishing tracheal system organization.

Throughout embryonic development, cells respond to a diverse set of signals and forces, making individual or collective decisions that drive the formation of specialized tissues. The development of these structures is tightly regulated in space and time. In recent years, the possibility that neighboring tissues influence one another's morphogenesis has been explored, as some of them develop simultaneously.

Recoil Measurements in Embryos: from Mounting to Image Analysis.

Tension and force propagation play a central role in tissue morphogenesis, as they enable sub- and supra-cellular shape changes required for the generation of new structures. Force is often generated by the cytoskeleton, which forms complex meshworks that reach cell-cell or cell-extracellular matrix junctions to induce cellular rearrangements. These mechanical properties can be measured through laser microdissection, which concentrates energy in the tissue of interest, disrupting its cytoskeleton.