Dynamic mechanical sorting biases niche occupancy and lineage outcome during development of bilayered glandular epithelia

In mouse embryonic glandular epithelia, basal–luminal compartmentalization is maintained by continuous positional corrections, not fixed boundaries, during dynamic morphogenesis.

• Why it matters: Fate boundaries in glandular tissues must persist while cells rearrange, but it is unclear whether compartmentalization is stabilized by static structures or ongoing mechanics.
• What they did: Using mouse embryonic explants and organoids with quantitative live imaging and genetic perturbations, the study links adhesion and actomyosin contractility to active cell sorting that shifts cell positions.
• The result: Mosaic (not uniform) mechanical perturbations change niche occupancy and bias lineage outcomes, while Notch and YAP perturbations remodel mechanical properties, revealing reciprocal coupling and conservation across four glandular epithelia.

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