Negative feedback on Retinoic Acid by Brachyury guides gastruloid symmetry-breaking

Establishment of the vertebrate body plan requires a combination of extra-embryonic signalling to establish morphogen gradients, and an underlying self-assembly mechanism that contributes to pattern regulation and robustness. Gastruloids are aggregates of mouse embryonic stem cells that break morphological symmetry and polarise Brachyury (Bra) expression in the absence of extra-embryonic signals. However, the mechanism by which symmetry breaking occurs is not yet known. During gastrulation and body axis elongation, retinoic acid (RA) and Cyp26a1 are polarised along the anteroposterior axis, and this is critical for balancing the decision of cells to self-renew or differentiate. We found that symmetry-breaking in gastruloids is coincident with the separation of Aldh1a2 and Cyp26a1 expression, and that feedback from Bra is critical for maintaining polarised Cyp26a1 gene expression in the gastruloid posterior region. Furthermore, we reveal a short temporal window where RA signalling can negatively influence both Bra and Cyp26a1 expression. These observations lead us to suggest a mechanism of how initial gastruloid patterning, subsequent elongation, and evolving network topologies can create defined boundaries of RA signalling that permits proper axial patterning and gastruloid growth.