Effective spring constant of the wing disc

Value 5 N/m Range: 1 N/m
Organism Fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster
Reference Schluck T, Aegerter CM. Photo-elastic properties of the wing imaginal disc of Drosophila. Eur Phys J E Soft Matter. 2010 Oct33(2):111-5. doi: 10.1140/epje/i2010-10580-8. p.113 right column bottom paragraph & p.115 left column top paragraphPubMed ID20563622
Method Abstract:"In order to determine the possibility of measuring mechanical stresses inside the tissue during development, [investigators] quantify the photo-elastic properties of the tissue by direct mechanical manipulation."
Comments p.113 right column bottom paragraph:"In some of [investigators’] experiments, the force of attachment on the cover slide was comparable to the force exerted by the spring sheet. This led to a detachment of the wing disc after having been subject to a stretching force for several minutes to half an hour. As can be seen from fig. 4, such detached wing discs revert to their original size, which takes place over the course of 2-3 seconds. The slight difference in appearance visible in fig. 4 is due to the fact that the unattached side of the disc can move in the z-direction bringing it out of focus and thus changing the form somewhat. This implies that on the time-scale of half an hour, the tissue does act elastically. In fact, a force extension curve of a typical wing disc is rather linear, as can be seen in fig. 5, with an effective spring constant of 5(1) N/m." p.115 left column top paragraph:"Furthermore, [investigators] have determined an effective spring constant of the wing disc, where [they] find a value of 5(1) N/m, which is considerably higher than the values for other, embryonic, tissues in the literature [refs 7, 9] and lies more in the range of adult tissues or muscle [refs 29, 30 BNID 112081]."
Entered by Uri M
ID 112082