Mechanical forces drive ordered patterning of hair cells in the mammalian inner ear

Roie Cohen, Liat Amir-Zilberstein, Micha Hersch, Shiran Woland, Olga Loza, Shahar Taiber, Fumio Matsuzaki, Sven Bergmann, Karen B. Avraham and David Sprinzak ()
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Roie Cohen: Tel Aviv University
Liat Amir-Zilberstein: Tel Aviv University
Micha Hersch: University of Lausanne
Shiran Woland: Tel Aviv University
Olga Loza: Tel Aviv University
Shahar Taiber: Tel Aviv University
Fumio Matsuzaki: Laboratory of Cell Asymmetry, RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research
Sven Bergmann: University of Lausanne
Karen B. Avraham: Tel Aviv University
David Sprinzak: Tel Aviv University

Nature Communications, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Abstract Periodic organization of cells is required for the function of many organs and tissues. The development of such periodic patterns is typically associated with mechanisms based on intercellular signaling such as lateral inhibition and Turing patterning. Here we show that the transition from disordered to ordered checkerboard-like pattern of hair cells and supporting cells in the mammalian hearing organ, the organ of Corti, is likely based on mechanical forces rather than signaling events. Using time-lapse imaging of mouse cochlear explants, we show that hair cells rearrange gradually into a checkerboard-like pattern through a tissue-wide shear motion that coordinates intercalation and delamination events. Using mechanical models of the tissue, we show that global shear and local repulsion forces on hair cells are sufficient to drive the transition from disordered to ordered cellular pattern. Our findings suggest that mechanical forces drive ordered hair cell patterning in a process strikingly analogous to the process of shear-induced crystallization in polymer and granular physics.

Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18894-8

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