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  • Open Access

Elasticity and plasticity of epithelial gap closure

Maryam Setoudeh and Pierre A. Haas*

  • *Contact author: haas@pks.mpg.de
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Phys. Rev. E 113, 044405 – Published 3 April, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/qtcv-gk3y

Abstract

Epiboly, during which a tissue closes around the surface of the egg, pervades animal development. This epithelial gap closure involves cell intercalations at the edge of the gap, but the interplay between these plastic cell rearrangements and the elasticity of the tissue is not understood. Here, inspired by serosa closure in the beetle Tribolium, we study this interplay in a minimal continuum model of the closure of a circular gap bounded by a contractile actomyosin cable. We reveal how two different closure mechanisms emerge at the tissue scale from the energy barrier Eb to and the energy ΔE released by intercalation: If Eb≫ΔE, cells intercalate into the gap to close it. For a fluidized tissue in which Eb≪ΔE, however, cells deintercalate from the boundary into the bulk of the tissue, consistently with Tribolium serosa closure. We also discover an emergent mechanical role of the inhomogeneities of the actomyosin cable observed in Tribolium. Our work thus explains the mechanical basis for Tribolium serosa closure and processes of epiboly and wound healing more generally.

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Phys. Rev. E 113, 044405– Published 3 April, 2026
  • Received 5 September 2025
  • Accepted 4 March 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Open access publication funded by Max Planck Society.

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