Light, Proteins, and Shape: Exploiting Pattern Formation for Light-controlled Cell Deformations

The explicit coupling of protein patterns to the dynamic cell geometry is crucial for many vital cellular functions. In particular, chemomechnanical waves play a key role for force generation and long-range signal transmission in cells that dynamically change shape, such as in morphogenesis or cell division. Unraveling the intracellular machinery that controls the generation and propagation of these waves is a major challenge both from a theoretical and experimental point of view. By coupling a reaction-diffusion model to a dynamic geometry, we analytically explore the potential of the protein reaction network responsible for surface contraction waves (SCWs) in starfish oocytes. We show that a wide variety of shape deformations, including SCWs and static deformations, can be induced via spatio-temporally targeted excitation of the reaction network. Experimentally, an optogenetic switch is designed to implement the targeted excitation and to validate the predicted shape deformations in starfish oocytes. Our results pave the way towards a fully mechanochemical model framework for studying pattern formation in dynamic geometries and, on a broader level, towards gaining control over dynamical deformations in living organisms and the design of synthetic cells.