Theory of mechano-chemical patterning in biphasic biological tissues

Abstract

The formation of self-organized patterns is key to the morphogenesis of multicellular organisms, although a comprehensive theory of biological pattern formation is still lacking. Here, we propose a biologically realistic and unifying approach to emergent pattern formation. Our biphasic model of multicellular tissues incorporates turnover and transport of morphogens controlling cell differentiation and tissue mechanics in a single framework, where one tissue phase consists of a poroelastic network made of cells and the other is the extracellular fluid permeating between cells. While this model encompasses previous theories approximating tissues to inert monophasic media, such as Turings reaction-diffusion model, it overcomes some of their key limitations permitting pattern formation via any two-species biochemical kinetics thanks to mechanically induced cross-diffusion flows. Moreover, we unravel a qualitatively different advection-driven instability which allows for the formation of patterns with a single morphogen and which single mode pattern scales with tissue size. We discuss the potential relevance of these findings for tissue morphogenesis.