What is it about?
This paper reveals a surprising similarity between bone development in humans and skeleton formation in sea urchin embryos. The research focuses on the process of biomineralization, the ability of organisms to create hard structures from minerals for protection, feeding, or support. The study discovered that the skeletal cells of sea urchin embryos use a mechanical sensing circuit to detect the hardness of the biomineral and control the construction and growth of the skeleton. A similar circuit directs the differentiation of human stem cells into skeletal cells during bone development. In adult humans, hardening of the extracellular environment with age, causes the activation of this mechanical sensing circuit in muscle cells, which can lead to pathological calcification, such as arterial calcification.
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Why is it important?
The discovery reveals an unexpected convergence in biomineralization between sea urchins and humans, despite their independent evolutionary paths. We propose that this common mechanical sensing circuit was activated in response to increasing tissue hardness, during the evolution of biomineralization across various animal systems. This finding highlights the remarkable modularity of biological systems, showing how nature can incorporate a similar “plug in” circuit into distinct developmental programs to respond to common mechanical cues across different species. Ultimately, this breakthrough could advance research in evolutionary biology, comparative developmental studies, and potentially lead to new approaches in treating pathological calcification diseases.
Perspectives
Working on this paper was a great pleasure thanks to the excellent team I had the opportunity to work with. Especially, seeing how my PhD student, now, Dr. Majed Layous, develops through this work and leading our entire lab into new and exciting directions.
Smadar Ben-Tabou De-Leon
University of Haifa
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: A mechanosensitive circuit of FAK, ROCK, and ERK controls biomineral growth and morphology in the sea urchin embryo, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, December 2024, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2408628121.
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