Actin driven morphogenesis in hydra

Abstract

Hydra, a centimeter long cylindrical-shaped freshwater organism, has emerged as an interesting model system for studying morphogenesis in animals. Recently, fluorescent imaging of cytoskeletal actin filaments on the outer surface of hydra has revealed nematic-type arrangement of actin filaments. {Several topological defects in the nematic field have also been detected. In particular, aster-like +1 defects appear at the curved head of hydra and at the tip of its tentacles, while -1/2 defects are seen at the base of the tentacles. However, functional role of these defects in tissue development is not clear. Motivated by these observations, we here model hydra's epthelial tissue as a visco-elastic membrane and the tentacles as growing membrane tubes driven by a nematic interaction among actin. We consider the epithelial layer of hydra as a fluid membrane and carry out a non-equilibrium simulation which also includes membrane growth and polymerization of actin. We show that specific kind of defect at the head does not play any positive role in emergence of the tentacles. The reorganization of actin at the base and the tip of growing tentacles are consistent with other possible defect structures at the head as well. While it is known that regions of tentacle growth are hot spots of chemical signaling, involving Wnt3/$β$-catenin pathway, we propose that active polymerization of actin bundles could also be an important player in the growth of tubular tentacles. In addition to polymerization, fluidity of our model membrane, capturing effective fluidity of the epithelial tissue, turns out to be essential for enabling such growth.