DynamicAtlas: a morphodynamic atlas for Drosophila development

Living organisms develop their shape through the interplay of gene expression and mechanics. While atlases of static samples characterize cell fates and gene regulation, understanding dynamic shape changes requires live imaging. Here we present DynamicAtlas: a 'morphodynamic atlas' of live and static datasets from 500 Drosophila melanogaster embryos (wild type and 18 mutants), aligned to a common morphological timeline. Surprisingly, characterizing wild-type surface tissue flows reveals distinct 'morphodynamic modules'-time periods in which the global pattern of motion is stationary-corresponding to key developmental stages. Mutant analysis shows stationary flow patterns depend on genes that break spatial symmetry along the dorsal-ventral axis. Temperature perturbations indicate that morphodynamic modules change in response to accumulated tissue deformation, rather than elapsed time. Extending our approach to the embryonic Drosophila midgut, we find modules in covariant measures of the dynamic three-dimensional surface. DynamicAtlas provides a high-resolution framework for studying shape formation across living systems.