# Quantitative characterization of a vertebrate segmentation clock response to biomechanical signals during zebrafish somitogenesis

> **NIH NIH R21** · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · 2021 · $222,882

## Abstract

Project Summary
Biological oscillators are essential to a variety of cellular, physiological and developmental processes, such as
cell divisions, heartbeats, and somitogenesis. Impaired biological oscillators cause diseases from insomnia to
cancer and have a significant impact on development and differentiation. Segmentation clock, a biological
oscillator well-conserved from zebrafish to humans, plays a key role in regulating the periodic somite formation
during vertebrate embryo somitogenesis. Although the central molecular players of the segmentation clock have
been long identified, the clock is embedded in a large intra- and inter-cellular network, and how it responds to
the complicated mechanical and biochemical microenvironments remains largely unknown. The goal of this
proposal is to develop an in vitro assay that enables the quantitative dissection of the complex processes
involved in the zebrafish somitogenesis. Presomitic mesoderm (PSM) cells, the precursor cells involved in the
somitogenesis, will be isolated from zebrafish embryos and cultured and examined under an array of
micromechanical tools with tunable mechanical cues (both substrate rigidity and mechanical stretching) across
a physiological range. Live imaging will be conducted to track cell behaviors, to monitor their oscillatory
behaviors, intracellular signaling activities and cell mechanics (including both cytoskeletal contractility and cell
stiffness) as a function of substrate rigidity and mechanical stretching. Importantly, our studies will be conducted
for both single cells as well as in the context of cell colonies where cell-cell communications are preserved.
Together, our proposed studies will lead to new knowledge about how the mechanical and biochemical
microenvironments jointly regulate PSM cells that self-organize into developmental patterns.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10196376
- **Project number:** 1R21HD105126-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR
- **Principal Investigator:** Jianping Fu
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $222,882
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-04-01 → 2023-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10196376

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10196376, Quantitative characterization of a vertebrate segmentation clock response to biomechanical signals during zebrafish somitogenesis (1R21HD105126-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10196376. Licensed CC0.

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