Recoil Measurements in Drosophila Embryos: from Mounting to Image Analysis

Tension and force propagation play a central role in tissue morphogenesis, as they enable sub- and supra-cellular shape changes required for the generation of new structures. Force is often generated by the cytoskeleton, which forms complex meshworks that reach cell–cell or cell–extracellular matrix junctions to induce cellular rearrangements. These mechanical properties can be measured through laser microdissection, which concentrates energy in the tissue of interest, disrupting its cytoskeleton. If the tissue is undergoing tension, this cut will induce a recoil in the surrounding regions of the cut. This protocol describes how one can perform laser microdissection experiments and subsequently measure the recoil speed of the sample of interest. While we explain how to carry out these experiments in Drosophila embryos, the recoil calibration and downstream analyses can be applied to other types of preparations. Key features• Allows measuring tension in live Drosophila embryos with a relatively simple approach. • Describes a quick way to mount a high number of embryos.• Includes a segmentation-free recoil quantification that reduces bias and speeds up analysis.Graphical overview