Active nematic defects and epithelial morphogenesis

Abstract

Inspired by recent experiments that highlight the role of nematic defects in the morphogenesis of epithelial tissues, we develop a minimal framework to study the dynamics of an active curved surface driven by its nematic texture. Allowing the surface to evolve via relaxational dynamics leads to a theory linking nematic defect dynamics, cellular division rates and Gaussian curvature. Regions of large positive (negative) curvature and positive (negative) growth are colocalized with the presence of positive (negative) defects. Applying this framework to the dynamics of cultured murine neural progenitor cells (NPCs) in an ex-vivo setting, we find that cells accumulate at positive defects and are depleted at negative defects. In contrast, applying this to the dynamics of a basal marine invertebrate \emph{Hydra} in an in-vivo setting, we show that activity stabilizes a bound $+1$ defect state by creating an incipient tentacle, while a bound $+1$ defect state surrounded by two $-1/2$ defects can create a stationary ring configuration of tentacles, consistent with observations.