The emergence of geometric order in proliferating metazoan epithelia

The predominantly hexagonal cell pattern of simple epithelia was noted in the earliest microscopic analyses of animal tissues, a topology commonly thought to reflect cell sorting into optimally packed honeycomb arrays. Here we use a discrete Markov model validated by time-lapse microscopy and clonal...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature 2006-08, Vol.442 (7106), p.1038-1041
Main Authors: Nagpal, Radhika, Perrimon, Norbert, Gibson, Matthew C, Patel, Ankit B
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal tissues
Animals
Arthropoda
Biological and medical sciences
Cell differentiation, maturation, development, hematopoiesis
Cell growth
Cell physiology
Cell Proliferation
Cellular biology
Drosophila
Drosophila - anatomy & histology
Drosophila - cytology
Drosophila - growth & development
Epithelial Cells - cytology
Epithelium - anatomy & histology
Epithelium - growth & development
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humanities and Social Sciences
Insects
letter
Marine
Markov analysis
Markov Chains
Metazoa
Microscopy
Mitosis
Molecular and cellular biology
Morphogenesis
multidisciplinary
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Topology
Vertebrates
Wings, Animal - anatomy & histology
Wings, Animal - cytology
Wings, Animal - growth & development
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Summary:The predominantly hexagonal cell pattern of simple epithelia was noted in the earliest microscopic analyses of animal tissues, a topology commonly thought to reflect cell sorting into optimally packed honeycomb arrays. Here we use a discrete Markov model validated by time-lapse microscopy and clonal analysis to demonstrate that the distribution of polygonal cell types in epithelia is not a result of cell packing, but rather a direct mathematical consequence of cell proliferation. On the basis of in vivo analysis of mitotic cell junction dynamics in Drosophila imaginal discs, we mathematically predict the convergence of epithelial topology to a fixed equilibrium distribution of cellular polygons. This distribution is empirically confirmed in tissue samples from vertebrate, arthropod and cnidarian organisms, suggesting that a similar proliferation-dependent cell pattern underlies pattern formation and morphogenesis throughout the metazoa.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
1476-4679
DOI:10.1038/nature05014