Distinct pattern memory rules govern apical and basal membrane compartments in vivo during tissue remodeling
June 30
Editor’s summary
Developing tissues refine their architecture through adaptive modulation of intercellular junctions. Yet how specific junctions are chosen to undergo distinct forms of plasticity during morphogenesis remains unresolved. The authors interrogated pattern-memory rules in discrete membrane territories of superficial ectodermal progenitors within the murine limb bud. Reinforcement of apical contacts required correlated activity with neighboring contacts and was independent of whole-cell calcium spikes. In contrast, basal contact reinforcement was driven by temporal coincidence with global calcium transients, echoing classical activity-dependent mechanisms. These compartmentalized rules imply functional specializations within single cells: apical plasticity nucleates cooperative contact clusters to enable nonlinear signal integration, whereas basal plasticity assembles reliable ensembles for robust pattern completion.
Abstract
Pattern memory underlies morphogenesis by selectively modulating intercellular contacts to reshape tissue dynamics and form. However, the principles dictating which contacts will undergo distinct plasticity in vivo during remodeling, and whether these principles are uniform within a single cell, remain unclear. Using in vivo, longitudinal light-sheet imaging at single-contact resolution in the murine limb bud during regenerative outgrowth, we found that apical and basal surfaces of ectodermal progenitors follow distinct activity-dependent plasticity rules. Strengthening of apical contacts and of basal contacts was predicted by local coactivity with nearby contacts and by coincidence with whole-cell calcium spikes, respectively. Pharmacological suppression of voltage-gated calcium entry abolished basal contact potentiation without affecting apical plasticity. Thus, individual cells deploy multiple activity-dependent pattern-memory rules in a compartment-specific manner in vivo during tissue remodeling.