How the shape of embryos and organs emerges during development is a fundamental
question that has fascinated scientists for centuries. Tissue dynamics arise from a small set …

During cell migration, the forces generated in the actin cytoskeleton are transmitted across
transmembrane receptors to the extracellular matrix or other cells through a series of …

A long-term aim of the life sciences is to understand how organismal shape is encoded by
the genome. An important challenge is to identify mechanistic links between the genes that …

Tissue morphogenesis is orchestrated by cell shape changes. Forces required to power
these changes are generated by non-muscle myosin II (MyoII) motor proteins pulling …

Contractile actomyosin bundles, stress fibers, govern key cellular processes including
migration, adhesion, and mechanosensing. Stress fibers are thus critical for developmental …

Adherens junctions are tensile structures that couple epithelial cells together. Junctional
tension can arise from cell-intrinsic application of contractility or from the cell-extrinsic forces …

Under conditions of homeostasis, dynamic changes in the length of individual adherens
junctions (AJs) provide epithelia with the fluidity required to maintain tissue integrity in the …

Sculpting organism shape requires that cells produce forces with proper directionality. Thus,
it is critical to understand how cells orient the cytoskeleton to produce forces that deform …

Cell and tissue shape changes require force generation via the F-actin and nonmuscle
myosin-II (myosin) cytoskeleton, which forms the cortex that lines the plasma membrane and …

The myosin holoenzyme is a multimeric protein complex consisting of heavy chains and light
chains. Myosin light chains are calmodulin family members which are crucially involved in …