The anomalous tango of hemocyte migration in Drosophila melanogaster embryos

TL;DR

This study uses advanced microscopy and deep learning to analyze hemocyte migration in Drosophila embryos, revealing complex anomalous motion patterns and the effects of specific mutants on cell motility.

Contribution

It introduces a quantitative framework for analyzing hemocyte motility, uncovering the oscillatory and heterogeneous nature of their anomalous transport during embryogenesis.

Findings

Hemocyte motion follows fractional Brownian motion with heterogeneity in time and space.

Mutants LanB1 and SCAR disrupt collective motion and reduce persistence.

Hemocyte motility oscillates with alternating epochs of persistence.

Abstract

Drosophila melanogaster hemocytes are highly motile cells that are crucial for successful embryogenesis and have important roles in the organism's immunological response. Hemocyte motion was measured using selective plane illumination microscopy. Every hemocyte cell in one half of an embryo was tracked during embryogenesis and analysed using a deep learning neural network. The anomalous transport of the cells was well described by fractional Brownian motion that was heterogeneous in both time and space. Hemocyte motion became less persistent over time. LanB1 and SCAR mutants disrupted the collective cellular motion and reduced its persistence due to the modification of viscoelasticity and actin-based motility respectively. The anomalous motility of the hemocytes oscillated in time with alternating epoques of varying persistent motion. Touching hemocytes experience synchronised contact inhibition of locomotion; an anomalous tango. A quantitative statistical framework is presented for hemocyte motility which provides new biological insights.