Dynamic Interplay between Morphogenesis and Cell Differentiation during Development
November 6, 2026 @ 10:00 – 12:00 CET
Speaker: Dr. Takefumi Kondo, RIKEN Centre for Biosystems Dynamics Research, Japan
Host: Mats Nilsson and Christos Samakovlis, Stockholm University/SciLifeLab
Abstract
Each organ acquires its characteristic form and function during embryogenesis through the coordinated processes of morphogenesis and cell differentiation. Although these physical and biochemical processes proceed simultaneously, it remains unclear how they interact to achieve the precise coordination required for proper organ development and function. We previously reported that, during tracheal development in Drosophila embryos, several mutants with defects in placode invagination show a reduction in the number of placode cells that successfully invaginate. In both wild-type embryos and these mutants, only placode cells that do invaginate differentiate into tracheal cells, whereas those that remain on the embryo surface differentiate into epidermal cells. This finding suggests that cell fate is not fully determined at the initial stage of placode induction, but instead remains flexible and can be adjusted in response to subsequent changes in the chemical and physical environment. Such plasticity may provide a mechanism by which the final differentiation state is precisely coordinated with tissue architecture.
We recently found that transient expression of the Pri micropeptide in tracheal placodes plays an important role in the transition from signal-guided fate induction to fate maintenance. In addition, invaginated tracheal cells, despite expressing the transcriptional repressor Svb, escape its repressive effects and maintain tracheal gene expression, suggesting that the context-dependent activity of this repressor may contribute to coordinating cell-fate regulation with morphogenesis. To further explore the crosstalk between morphogenesis and cell differentiation, we are also aim to quantitatively capture the spatiotemporal dynamics of cell differentiation. To this end, we are establishing a comprehensive time-course single-cell RNA-seq dataset and an in-house highly multiplexed whole-mount FISH platform. In this presentation, I will introduce these resources and experimental approaches and discuss the spatiotemporal relationship between morphogenesis and cell differentiation during embryogenesis.
Biography
Dr. Takefumi Kondo is Team Director of the Laboratory for Developmental Genome System at the RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research in Kobe, Japan. His research aims to understand how embryonic development proceeds with remarkable precision and robustness, with a particular focus on the interplay between cell differentiation and tissue morphogenesis. Using Drosophila embryogenesis as a model, his group combines genetics, imaging, and single-cell/spatial genomics to investigate developmental processes across multiple scales, from genome function to tissue organization.
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