supracellular

But, with a few exceptions10, we still do not know to what extent the material properties of cells as individuals and collectives control axis elongation in vivo, because it is technically challenging to simultaneously measure internal mechanical stresses and changing material properties within elongating tissues at cellular and supracellular scales.

They used changes in the shape of the microdroplets from spherical to ellipsoid to infer supracellular mechanical stresses, and so to map the spatial distribution of forces along the axis.

These supracellular stresses persisted for more than 30 minutes, on a par with the timescale over which PSM maturation leads to the formation of somites.