Volume 232, 2021

Common principles of surface deformation in biology

Abstract

Living organisms, whether they are cells or multicellular organisms, are separated from their environment by an interface. For example, cells are delimited by lipid bilayers while embryos or individuals are delimited by epithelia, ectoderms or epiderms. These biological interfaces, while being different in nature and composition, and at very different scales, share common properties: they are surfaces, their thickness being very small compared to their size. They are materials of chemical composition or cell type that is unique and different from the core of the material they envelop. They are visco-elastic sheets, meaning that components can flow in the plane of the surface. The shape of cells and of embryos is inherently dictated by the shape of their envelope, and because these interfaces have common properties, we explore in this commentary article the different mechanisms that remodel these different biological surfaces, and their common principles.

Graphical abstract: Common principles of surface deformation in biology

Associated articles

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
09 jul 2021
Accepted
14 jul 2021
First published
16 jul 2021
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Faraday Discuss., 2021,232, 347-357

Common principles of surface deformation in biology

A. Roux, Faraday Discuss., 2021, 232, 347 DOI: 10.1039/D1FD00040C

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