How is tissue tension controlled at the organismal level to maintain body shape and complex three-dimensional structures? Makoto Furutani-Seiki and colleagues describe a medaka fish mutant, hirame (hir), with a flattened body. They show that the phenotype is due to a reduction of internal forces caused by the absence of YAP protein, part of the Hippo signalling pathway. This effect is linked to the control exerted by YAP on actomyosin-mediated tension through regulation of a RhoGAP GTPase-activating protein. YAP also functions in this way in human cell spheres.
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