Overview

• Two independent Nature papers converge on the cephalic furrow acting as a mechanical sink that prevents tissue buckling during Drosophila gastrulation.
• Experiments show that removing the fold increases mechanical instability driven by cell divisions and tissue flows in the early embryo.
• A computational model calibrated to live data indicates that timing and position, rather than fold strength, set buffering efficacy, with earlier formation near the embryo’s middle performing best.
• Comparative analyses connect changes in buttonhead gene expression to the evolutionary origin of the fold in a subset of Diptera.
• A parallel study finds that species lacking the fold avoid compressive collisions through widespread out-of-plane cell divisions that reduce surface area.