Assessing the mechanical energy costs of various tissue reshaping mechanisms

Early-stage embryos must reshape the tissues of which they are made into organs and other life-sustaining structures; and if non-mammalian embryos fail to complete these tasks before the energy provided by their yolk runs out, they die. The aim of this study is to use a cell-level computational model to investigate the energetic cost of a variety of mechanisms that can drive an in-plane reshaping pattern known as convergent extension—a motif in which a tissue narrows in one in-plane direction and expands in another. Mechanisms considered include oriented lamellipodia, directed mitosis, stress fibers, and anisotropic external tension. Both isolated patches of tissue and actively contracting tissues that deform adjacent passive areas are considered. The cell-level finite element model used here assumes that the cell membrane and its associated proteins generate a net tension γ along each cell–cell interface and that the cytoplasm and its embedded networks and structures have an effective viscosity μ . Work costs are based exclusively on mechanical considerations such as edge lengths and tensions, and because a traditional mechanical efficiency cannot be calculated, mechanisms are compared on the basis of the work they must do to the tissue to cause a specified rate of in-plane reshaping. Although the model contains a number of simplifications compared to real embryonic tissues, it is able to show that the work requirements for tissue reshaping by mitoses and by lamellipodia are of the same order. Lamellipodia are energetically most effective when their tensions are approximately twice as large as the interfacial tensions in the surrounding cells. The model also shows that stress fibers or other direct stretch or compression mechanisms are at least five times more efficient for tissue reshaping than are mitoses or lamellipodia and that the work needed to deform a typical cellular tissue is more than thirty times greater than if it did not contain cell boundaries. Collectively, these findings indicate that common tissue reshaping mechanisms have mechanical efficiencies of less than one percent and that mechanical efficiency is not the primary determinant of which mechanism(s) an embryo uses to reshape its tissues.