The sex of organ geometry

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Blackie, Laura; Gaspar, Pedro; Mosleh, Salem; Lushchak, Oleh; Kong, Lingjin; Jin, Yuhong; Zielinska, Agata P.; Cao, Boxuan; Mineo, Alessandro; Silva, Bryon; Ameku, Tomotsune; Lim, Shu En; Mao, Yanlan; Prieto-Godino, Lucia; Schoborg, Todd; Varela, Marta; Mahadevan, L.; Miguel-Aliaga, Irene
• 署名单位: Imperial College London; Francis Crick Institute; Harvard University; MRC Laboratory Molecular Biology; University of London; University College London; University of London; University College London; University of Wyoming; Imperial College London; Harvard University; University System of Maryland; University of Maryland Eastern Shore
• 刊物名称: Nature
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0028-6161
• DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07463-4
• 发表日期: 2024-06-13
• 页码: 392-+
• 关键词: left-right asymmetry; stem-cell division; drosophila-melanogaster; neural circuit; switch-gene; splice-site; transformer; lethal; expression; neurons

摘要

Organs have a distinctive yet often overlooked spatial arrangement in the body(1-5). We propose that there is a logic to the shape of an organ and its proximity to its neighbours. Here, by using volumetric scans of many Drosophila melanogaster flies, we develop methods to quantify three-dimensional features of organ shape, position and interindividual variability. We find that both the shapes of organs and their relative arrangement are consistent yet differ between the sexes, and identify unexpected interorgan adjacencies and left-right organ asymmetries. Focusing on the intestine, which traverses the entire body, we investigate how sex differences in three-dimensional organ geometry arise. The configuration of the adult intestine is only partially determined by physical constraints imposed by adjacent organs; its sex-specific shape is actively maintained by mechanochemical crosstalk between gut muscles and vascular-like trachea. Indeed, sex-biased expression of a muscle-derived fibroblast growth factor-like ligand renders trachea sexually dimorphic. In turn, tracheal branches hold gut loops together into a male or female shape, with physiological consequences. Interorgan geometry represents a previously unrecognized level of biological complexity which might enable or confine communication across organs and could help explain sex or species differences in organ function.