Mouse embryonic stem cells self-organize into trunk-like structures with neural tube and somites
Jesse V. Veenvliet, Adriano Bolondi, Helene Kretzmer, Leah Haut, Manuela Scholze‐Wittler, Dennis Schifferl, Frédéric Koch, Léo Guignard, Abhishek Sampath Kumar, Milena Pustet, Simon Heimann, René Buschow, Lars Wittler, Bernd Timmermann, Alexander Meissner, Bernhard G. Herrmann
Abstract
Trunk formation in a dish Building mammalian embryos from self-organizing stem cells in culture would accelerate the investigation of morphogenetic and differentiation processes that shape the body plan. Veenvliet et al. report a method for generating embryonic trunk-like structures (TLSs) with a neural tube, somites, and gut by embedding mouse embryonic stem cell aggregates in an extracellular matrix surrogate. Live imaging and comparative single-cell transcriptomics indicate that TLS formation is analogous to mouse development. TLSs therefore provide a scalable, tractable, and accessible high-throughput platform for decoding mammalian embryogenesis at a high level of resolution. Science , this issue p. eaba4937