Massimo Vergassola

Odorant Receptor Inhibition Is Fundamental to Odor Encoding

Current Biology · 2020-05-28 · 175 citations

Optimal policies for Bayesian olfactory search in turbulent flows

Physical review. E · 2023-05-16 · 20 citations

In many practical scenarios, a flying insect must search for the source of an emitted cue which is advected by the atmospheric wind. On the macroscopic scales of interest, turbulence tends to mix the cue into patches of relatively high concentration over a background of very low concentration, so that the insect will detect the cue only intermittently and cannot rely on chemotactic strategies which simply climb the concentration gradient. In this work we cast this search problem in the language…

Two-fluid dynamics and micron-thin boundary layers shape cytoplasmic flows in early<i>Drosophila</i>embryos

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2023-10-25 · 11 citations

Cytoplasmic flows are widely emerging as key functional players in development. In early Drosophila embryos, flows drive the spreading of nuclei across the embryo. Here, we combine hydrodynamic modeling with quantitative imaging to develop a two-fluid model that features an active actomyosin gel and a passive viscous cytosol. Gel contractility is controlled by the cell cycle oscillator, the two fluids being coupled by friction. In addition to recapitulating experimental flow patterns, our model…

Decaying and expanding Erk gradients process memory of skeletal size during zebrafish fin regeneration

bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2025-01-23 · 8 citations

Abstract Regeneration of an amputated salamander limb or fish fin restores pre-injury size and structure, illustrating the phenomenon of positional memory. Although appreciated for centuries, the identity of position-dependent cues and how they control tissue growth are not resolved. Here, we quantify Erk signaling events in whole populations of osteoblasts during zebrafish fin regeneration. We find that osteoblast Erk activity is dependent on Fgf receptor signaling and organized into millimeter…

Olfactory cues and memories in animal navigation

Nature Reviews Physics · 2024-03-08 · 6 citations