Interplay of cell shape and division orientation promotes robust morphogenesis of developing epithelia.

ABSTRACT: Epithelial cells acquire functionally important shapes (e.g., squamous, cuboidal, columnar) during development. Here, we combine theory, quantitative imaging, and perturbations to analyze how tissue geometry, cell divisions, and mechanics interact to shape the presumptive enveloping layer (pre-EVL) on the zebrafish embryonic surface. We find that, under geometrical constraints, pre-EVL flattening is regulated by surface cell number changes following differentially oriented cell divisions. The division pattern is, in turn, determined by the cell shape distribution, which forms under geometrical constraints by cell-cell mechanical coupling. An integrated mathematical model of this shape-division feedback loop recapitulates empirical observations. Surprisingly, the model predicts that cell sh

SUBMITTER: Xiong F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4273647 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature