Paper publication!

3D epithelial cell topology tunes signaling range to promote precise patterning

Congratulations to Giulia on her latest paper in PNAS

Check it out here:

The topology of cell–cell contacts in 3D increases potential signaling range.

(A) Overview of the wing disc pouch showing the imaging region and corresponding 3D segmentation of wing disc cells. (B) Representative cell pairs showing apico-basal intercalations (apical neighbors moving further apart in z and vice-versa).

Signaling beyond the first apical neighbors is required to achieve the experimentally observed SOP pattern.

(A) Feedback loop underlying lateral inhibition in Notch-Delta signaling. (B) For patterning based on lateral inhibition, an extended signaling range gives rise to a sparse pattern as the cells can inhibit neighbors further away in the tissue. (C) Overview of SOPs in a late third instar wing disc, including the two rows of SOPs at the anterior wing margin, and SOPs in the notum. (Scale bar, 50 µm.) (D) Left: SOP pattern in late third instar wing discs (Top, Scale bar, 5 µm) compared to simulated tissues without (Middle) and with (Bottom) long-range signaling. Right: quantification of SOP spacing (number of cells between two SOPs) in experiments and simulations. (E) Simplified schematic of neighbor changes in 3D and their impact on signaling.