Großes Physikalisches Kolloquium

Embryogenesis, the development of a complex multicellular organism from a single fertilized egg cell, is a fascinating self-organization phenomenon that invokes biochemical and physical cues on multiple length and time scales. To study the role of physics during early developmental stages, the small nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is an excellent model organism because of its simplicity, transparency, genetic accessibility, and developmental reproducibility. Using light-sheet microscopy, we have explored how physical cues determine cell arrangement, cell division timing, the size-adaption of nuclei, and the diffusive transport of condensate-like protein granules in early embryonic stages of C. elegans. Our results reveal that granules mostly perform non-Markovian random walks while the interplay of limiting components and mechanical forces create simple and robust physical cues that allow the embryo to self-organize and develop on autopilot until gastrulation.