Abstract

Chicken embryo development occurs through the transformation of a circular blastodisc into an anisotropically shaped body axis with different organs such as the brain, spinal cord that form the axis along with heart and the blood vessel network. This shape transformation is known to be mediated through mechanical forces and interaction between the different tissue layers. One major tissue during avian development called the extra embryonic tissue gives rise to the blood circulation network and is a poorly studied tissue. While cells in this region are migratory and grow during development, not much is known about how their migratory properties affect adjacent tissues that give rise to the brain and body axis. In this talk, I will describe how our work has characterized the mechanical properties of this region with potential implications to study birth defects such as spina bifida.