Epithelia containing multiciliated cells align beating cilia along a common planar axis specified by the conserved planar cell polarity (PCP) pathway. Specification of the planar axis is also thought to require a long-range cue to align the axis globally, but the nature of this cue in ciliated and other epithelia remains poorly understood. We examined this issue using the Xenopus larval skin where ciliary flow aligns to the anterior-posterior (A-P) axis. We first show that a planar axis initially arises in the developing skin during gastrulation, based on the appearance of polarized apical microtubules and cell junctions with increased levels of stable PCP components. This axis also arises in severely ventralized embryos despite their deficient embryonic patterning. Since ventralized embryos still gastrulate, producing a mechanical force that strains the developing skin along the A-P axis, we asked whether this strain alone drives global planar patterning. Isolated skin explanted before gastrulation lacks strain, fails to acquire a global planar axis, but responds to exogenous strain by undergoing cell elongation, forming polarized apical microtubules, and aligning stable components of the PCP pathway orthogonal to the axis of strain. The planar axis in embryos can be redirected by applying exogenous strain during a critical period around gastrulation. Finally, we provide evidence that apical microtubules and the PCP pathway interact to align the planar axis. These results indicate that oriented tissue strain generated by the gastrulating mesoderm plays a major role in determining the global axis of planar polarity of the developing skin.

The Xenopus left-right organizer (LRO) breaks symmetry along the left-right axis of the early embryo by producing and sensing directed ciliary flow as a patterning cue. To carry out this process, the LRO contains different ciliated cell types that vary in cilia length, whether they are motile or sensory, and how they position their cilia along the anterior-posterior (A-P) planar axis. Here, we show that these different cilia features are specified in the prospective LRO during gastrulation, based on anisotropic mechanical strain that is oriented along the A-P axis, and graded in levels along the medial-lateral axis. Strain instructs ciliated cell differentiation by acting on a mesodermal prepattern present at blastula stages, involving foxj1. We propose that differential strain is a graded, developmental cue, linking the establishment of an A-P planar axis to cilia length, motility, and planar location during formation of the Xenopus LRO.

No abstract

Massive centriole amplification during multiciliated cell (MCC) differentiation is a notable example of organelle biogenesis. This process is thought to be enabled by a derived cell cycle state, but the key cell cycle components required for centriole amplification in MCC progenitors remain poorly defined. Here, we show that emi2 ( fbxo43 ) expression is up-regulated and acts in MCC progenitors after cell cycle exit to transiently inhibit anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome (APC/C) cdh1 activity. We find that this inhibition is required for the phosphorylation and activation of a key cell cycle kinase, plk1, which acts, in turn, to promote different steps required for centriole amplification and basal body formation, including centriole disengagement, apical migration, and maturation into basal bodies. This emi2-APC/C-plk1 axis is also required to down-regulate gene expression essential for centriole amplification after differentiation is complete. These results identify an emi2-APC/C-plk1 axis that promotes and then terminates centriole assembly and basal body formation during MCC differentiation.

Research on plenums partitioned with multiple baffles in the industrial field has been exhaustive. Most researchers have explored noise reduction effects based on the transfer matrix method and the boundary element method. However, maximum noise reduction of a plenum within a constrained space, which frequently occurs in engineering problems, has been neglected. Therefore, the optimum design of multi-chamber plenums becomes essential. In this paper, two kinds of multi-chamber plenums (Case I: a two-chamber plenum that is partitioned with a centre-opening baffle; Case II: a three-chamber plenum that is partitioned with two centre-opening baffles) within a fixed space are assessed.In order to speed up the assessment of optimal plenums hybridized with multiple partitioned baffles, a simplified objective function (OBJ) is established by linking the boundary element model (BEM, developed using SYSNOISE) with a polynomial neural network fit with a series of real data -input design data (baffle dimensions) and output data approximated by BEM data in advance. To assess optimal plenums, a genetic algorithm (GA) is applied. The results reveal that the maximum value of the transmission loss (TL) can be improved at the desired frequencies. Consequently, the algorithm proposed in this study can provide an efficient way to develop optimal multi-chamber plenums for industry.Keywords: boundary element method; plenum; centre-opening baffle; polynomial neural network model; group method of data handling; optimisation; genetic algorithm. NotationsThroughout the paper the following notations are used:bit -bit length of chromosome, itermax -maximum iteration during GA optimisation, L 1 , L 2 -design parameters of a two-chamber plenum [m], LL 1 , LL 2 -design parameters of a three-chamber plenum [m], pc -crossover ratio, pm -mutation ratio, pop -number of population, T L -sound transmission loss [dB].