Combined Physics and Bmp Signaling Network Dynamics to Model Early Embryonic Development in Zebrafish

Embryonic development is a complicated phenomenon influenced by genetic regulation and biomechanical cellular behaviors. However, the relative influence of these factors on spatiotemporal morphogen distributions is not well understood. Bone Morphogoenetic Proteins (BMPs) are the primary morphogen guiding the dorsal-ventral (DV) patterning of the early zebrafish embryo, and BMP signaling is regulated by a network of extracellular and intracellular factors that impact the range and signaling of BMP ligands. Throughout blastulation and gastrulation, major cell movement, known as epiboly, happens along with the BMP mediated DV patterning. The layer of epithelial cells begins to thin as it spreads toward the vegetal pole of the embryo until it has completely engulfed the yolk cell. This dynamic domain may influence the distributions of BMP network member. This project aims to investigate the multiscale regulatory network of the BMP signaling dynamics along with the biophysical deformation of the embryo tissue during epiboly. In this study, we present a three-dimensional (3D) growing domain finite element framework to simulate the BMP patterning and epiboly process during the gastrula stage zebrafish embryo. We are interested in how the cellular movements impact the formation of gradients by contributing an advective term whereby the morphogens are swept with the moving cells as they move vegetally. Our goal is to develop a complete advection-diffusion-reaction model that incorporates all stages of zebrafish embryonic development data to investigate mechanisms in underlying BMP-driven DV patterning during epiboly. Dynamic cell imaging data are used to quantify the cell movement during the epiboly. We evaluated the accuracy of the mesh updating compared to the advection caused by cell movement and its role in embryonic patterning. Quantitative whole-mount RNA scope data of BMP2b and phosphorylated-SMAD data are collected and analyzed precisely to test the hypotheses of the gradient formation mechanism in our model. By combining the biophysics of epiboly with the regulatory dynamics of the BMP network, we are able to test complex models to investigate the consistent spatiotemporal DV patterning in the early zebrafish embryo.