A new multi-layer model to predict cell development in Drosophila!
Pleased to share our new preprint! A wonderful collaboration bringing together experimental and modelling efforts to understand how 3D cell shapes influence signalling and developmental patterning in the Drosophila wing! 🪰🔬💻
In fruit flies, sensory organ precursors (SOPs) are specified by Notch-Delta signalling and later give rise to the sensory bristles along the wing margin. We wondered: could a cell’s 3D topology tune its signalling range to promote precise patterning? Wing disc cells adopt scutoid geometries, bringing new neighbours into contact through apicobasal intercalations. To test whether these 3D arrangements influence signalling and pattern formation, we introduce a Multi-layer Signalling Model built on realistic cell networks from imaging and perform both computational and in vivo perturbations to alter cell shapes and contacts. We find that such 3D contacts extend signalling beyond immediate neighbours, revealing a mechanism that explains the SOP spacing characteristic of the wing margin.
A big thank you to my co-authors Yanlan Mao (LMCB, UCL), Buzz Baum (MRC LMB), Karen M. Page (Dept of Mathematics, UCL), and a special thanks to Giulia Paci (LMCB, UCL), who carried out all the experiments.
🔗 Read the preprint here: doi.org/10.1101/2025.08.08.668674
