DOI: 10.5061/dryad.pg4f4qrph
title: Mechanical heterogeneity along single cell-cell junctions is driven by lateral clustering of cadherins during vertebrate axis elongation

description: Morphogenesis is governed by the interplay of molecular signals and
 mechanical forces across multiple length scales.  The last decade
 has seen tremendous advances in our understanding of the dynamics of
 protein localization and turnover at sub-cellular length scales, and at
 the other end of the spectrum, of mechanics at tissue-level length
 scales.  Integrating the two remains a challenge, however,
 because we lack a detailed understanding of the subcellular patterns of
 mechanical properties of cells within tissues.  Here, in the
 context of the elongating body axis of Xenopus embryos, we combine tools
 from cell biology and physics to demonstrate that individual cell-cell
 junctions display finely-patterned local mechanical heterogeneity along
 their length. We show that such local mechanical patterning is essential
 for the cell movements of convergent extension and is imparted by locally
 patterned clustering of a classical cadherin.  Finally, the
 patterning of cadherins and thus local mechanics along cell-cell junctions
 are controlled by Planar Cell Polarity signaling, a key genetic module for
 CE that is mutated in diverse human birth defects.
description: This dataset contains raw time-lapse microscopy movies of
 cell-cell junctions in the <i>Xenopus Laevis</i> dorsal
 mesoderm. Data was collected using instant structured illumination
 microscopy (BioVision Technologies) with a 100x Plan Apo silicone emersion
 lens. Image acquisition parameters are described in the methods section of
 the associated manuscript. This dataset also contains processed versions
 of each time-lapse movie. Movies were processed as described in the
 methods section of the associated manuscript. The processed movies were
 used to measure cadherin3-GFP intensity at cell junctions and to measure
 junction movements over time. The regions of interest used to collect
 these measurements and the raw measurement values are also included in
 this dataset.
description: The movies contained in this dataset are in .tiff format and can
 be opened using Fiji/ImageJ (or other imaging software). Regions of
 interest are in .zip format and can be opened in Fiji/imageJ. Measurements
 are in .csv format and can be opened in Fiji/imageJ or spreadsheet
 software such as excel. Five different conditions were
 used in the study associated with this dataset. These conditions were
 Shortening v-junctions, Non-shortening junctions, Cis mutant junctions,
 Rescue junctions, and Xdd1 junctions. There is a folder for each of these
 conditions and within each of these folders are 3 subfolders containing
 either raw movies, processed movies, or regions of interest and
 measurements. Raw movies, processed movies, and regions of interest are
 each labeled with the date of imaging and can be correctly paired by this
 date.   A set of measurements and a multiplot are
 included for each cell junction. The measuremnts of interest for this
 study were the mean intensity across the junction labeled as
 "mean" in the measurement files and the junction length labeled
 as "length" in the measurement file. We have also included the
 minimum intensity, maximum intensity, circularity, intenisty intigrated
 density, and raw intigrated density. The multiplot file contains the
 individual pixal intensities across each cell junction over
 time.