# Organ Growth Control

**Source**: https://physics-of-life.tu-dresden.de/team/pol-groups/mateus/projects/organ-growth-control
**Parent**: https://physics-of-life.tu-dresden.de/team/pol-groups/mateus

During animal development, organs need to grow in a proportional manner with respect to body size.

​Our goal is to understand, in a quantitative way, **how morphogens can regulate and contribute to organ growth.**

​Interestingly, during zebrafish pectoral fin development, we have found **two BMP signalling gradients that are crucial to achieve pectoral fin proportionality**. These are exponential concentration gradients that scale with the growing fin. Importantly, manipulation of the gradients leads to small fins.

​By performing *quantitative live imaging and generating new molecular tools*, we are ***exploring the mechanisms that contribute to gradient scaling* in vertebrates.**

## Future Projects and Goals

We want to investigate how information is converted into growth, in development and in regeneration, by looking into:

- **Electrical ion flows** – to study the propagation of ion flows as triggers for growth acceleration.
- **Chemical signaling gradients** – to test whether cells can detect the fold-change of morphogen concentration gradients over time.
- **Mechanical forces** – to investigate how growth anisotropy can link mechanical forces to stereotypical organ pattern.

### More Information

Mateus R, Holtzer L, Seum C, Hadjivasiliou Z, Dubois M, Julicher F, Gonzalez-Gaitan M\
 **[BMP signalling gradient scaling in the zebrafish pectoral fin](https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(20)30338-7)**\
 Cell Reports 2020 30, 4292–4302

Brandão AS, Bensimon-Brito A, Lourenço R, Borbinha J, Soares AR, Mateus R, Jacinto A\
 **[Yap induces osteoblast differentiation by modulating Bmp signalling during zebrafish caudal fin regeneration](https://jcs.biologists.org/content/132/22/jcs231993.long)**\
 Journal of Cell Science 2019 132: jcs231993