Curvature in Biological Systems: Its Quantification, Emergence, and Implications across the Scales

Barbara Schamberger, Ricardo Ziege, Karine Anselme, Martine Ben Amar, Michał Bykowski, André P.G. Castro, Amaia Cipitria, Rhoslyn A. Coles, Rumiana Dimova, Michaela Eder, Sebastian Ehrig, Luis M. Escudero, Myfanwy E. Evans, Paulo R. Fernandes, Peter Fratzl, Liesbet Geris, Notburga Gierlinger, Edouard Hannezo, Aleš Iglič, Jacob J.K. KirkensgaardPhilip Kollmannsberger, Łucja Kowalewska, Nicholas A. Kurniawan, Ioannis Papantoniou, Laurent Pieuchot, Tiago H.V. Pires, Lars D. Renner, Andrew O. Sageman-Furnas, Gerd E. Schröder-Turk, Anupam Sengupta, Vikas R. Sharma, Antonio Tagua, Caterina Tomba, Xavier Trepat, Sarah L. Waters, Edwina F. Yeo, Andreas Roschger*, Cécile M. Bidan*, John W.C. Dunlop*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReviewResearchpeer-review

47 Citations (Scopus)
32 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Surface curvature both emerges from, and influences the behavior of, living objects at length scales ranging from cell membranes to single cells to tissues and organs. The relevance of surface curvature in biology is supported by numerous experimental and theoretical investigations in recent years. In this review, first, a brief introduction to the key ideas of surface curvature in the context of biological systems is given and the challenges that arise when measuring surface curvature are discussed. Giving an overview of the emergence of curvature in biological systems, its significance at different length scales becomes apparent. On the other hand, summarizing current findings also shows that both single cells and entire cell sheets, tissues or organisms respond to curvature by modulating their shape and their migration behavior. Finally, the interplay between the distribution of morphogens or micro-organisms and the emergence of curvature across length scales is addressed with examples demonstrating these key mechanistic principles of morphogenesis. Overall, this review highlights that curved interfaces are not merely a passive by-product of the chemical, biological, and mechanical processes but that curvature acts also as a signal that co-determines these processes.

Original languageEnglish
Article number2206110
JournalAdvanced Materials
Volume35
Issue number13
Number of pages23
ISSN0935-9648
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
B.S. and A.R. contributed equally to this work. A.P.G.C. and P.R.F. acknowledge the funding from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Portugal), through IDMEC, under LAETA project UIDB/50022/2020. T.H.V.P. acknowledges the funding from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Portugal), through Ph.D. Grant 2020.04417.BD. A.S. acknowledges that this work was partially supported by the ATTRACT Investigator Grant (no. A17/MS/11572821/MBRACE, to A.S.) from the Luxembourg National Research Fund. The author thanks Gerardo Ceada for his help in the graphical representations. N.A.K. acknowledges support from the European Research Council (grant 851960) and the Gravitation Program “Materials Driven Regeneration,” funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (024.003.013). M.B.A. acknowledges support from the French National Research Agency (grant ANR‐201‐8‐CE1‐3‐0008 for the project “Epimorph”). G.E.S.T. acknowledges funding by the Australian Research Council through project DP200102593. A.C. acknowledges the funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Emmy Noether Grant CI 203/‐2 1, the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (PID2021‐123013O‐BI00) and the IKERBASQUE Basque Foundation for Science.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. Advanced Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.

Keywords

  • biological systems
  • mechanotransduction
  • morphogenesis
  • surface curvature

Cite this