Self-organization drives symmetry-breaking, scaling, and critical growth transitions in stem cell-derived organoids
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arXiv
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| Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Formato: | Preprint |
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2025
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| author | Aguilar-Hidalgo, Daniel Ostblom, Joel Siu, M Mona Raval, Divy Ghagre, Ajinkya Heydari, Tiam McMaster, Benjamin Gui, Jonathan Werschler, Nicolas Tewary, Mukul Zandstra, Peter W. |
| author_facet | Aguilar-Hidalgo, Daniel Ostblom, Joel Siu, M Mona Raval, Divy Ghagre, Ajinkya Heydari, Tiam McMaster, Benjamin Gui, Jonathan Werschler, Nicolas Tewary, Mukul Zandstra, Peter W. |
| contents | The emergence of spatial patterns and organized growth is a hallmark of developing tissues. While symmetry-breaking and scaling laws govern these processes, how cells coordinate spatial patterning with size regulation remains unclear. Here, we combine quantitative imaging, a Turing activator-repressor model with self-organized reactive boundaries, and in vitro models of early mouse development to study mesodermal pattern formation in two-dimensional (2D) gastruloids. We show that colony size dictates symmetry: small colonies (radius approximately 100 micrometers) spontaneously break symmetry, while larger ones remain centro-symmetric, consistent with size-dependent positional information and model predictions. The mesodermal domain area scales robustly with colony size following a power law, independent of cell density, indicating that cells sense and respond to gastruloid size. Time-lapse imaging reveals a biphasic growth law: an early power-law expansion followed by exponential arrest, marking a dynamical phase transition. These dynamics, conserved across sizes, reflect features of criticality seen in physical systems, where self-organization, scaling, and boundary feedback converge. Our findings uncover a minimal mechanism for size-dependent pattern formation and growth control. This framework enables quantitative investigation of symmetry-breaking and scaling in self-organizing tissues, offering insights into the physical principles underlying multicellular organization. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_18887 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Self-organization drives symmetry-breaking, scaling, and critical growth transitions in stem cell-derived organoids Aguilar-Hidalgo, Daniel Ostblom, Joel Siu, M Mona Raval, Divy Ghagre, Ajinkya Heydari, Tiam McMaster, Benjamin Gui, Jonathan Werschler, Nicolas Tewary, Mukul Zandstra, Peter W. Tissues and Organs Biological Physics The emergence of spatial patterns and organized growth is a hallmark of developing tissues. While symmetry-breaking and scaling laws govern these processes, how cells coordinate spatial patterning with size regulation remains unclear. Here, we combine quantitative imaging, a Turing activator-repressor model with self-organized reactive boundaries, and in vitro models of early mouse development to study mesodermal pattern formation in two-dimensional (2D) gastruloids. We show that colony size dictates symmetry: small colonies (radius approximately 100 micrometers) spontaneously break symmetry, while larger ones remain centro-symmetric, consistent with size-dependent positional information and model predictions. The mesodermal domain area scales robustly with colony size following a power law, independent of cell density, indicating that cells sense and respond to gastruloid size. Time-lapse imaging reveals a biphasic growth law: an early power-law expansion followed by exponential arrest, marking a dynamical phase transition. These dynamics, conserved across sizes, reflect features of criticality seen in physical systems, where self-organization, scaling, and boundary feedback converge. Our findings uncover a minimal mechanism for size-dependent pattern formation and growth control. This framework enables quantitative investigation of symmetry-breaking and scaling in self-organizing tissues, offering insights into the physical principles underlying multicellular organization. |
| title | Self-organization drives symmetry-breaking, scaling, and critical growth transitions in stem cell-derived organoids |
| topic | Tissues and Organs Biological Physics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.18887 |