Modelling planar polarity of epithelia: the role of signal relay in collective cell polarization |
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Authors: | Ivana Viktorinová Len M Pismen Beno?t Aigouy Christian Dahmann |
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Affiliation: | 1.Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Pfotenhauerstrasse 108, 01307 Dresden, Germany;2.Department of Chemical Engineering and Minerva Center for Nonlinear Physics of Complex Systems, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel;3.Institute of Genetics, Dresden University of Technology, 01062 Dresden, Germany;4.Biotechnology Center, BIOTEC, Dresden University of Technology, 01062 Dresden, Germany |
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Abstract: | Collective cell polarization is an important characteristic of tissues. Epithelia commonly display cellular structures that are polarized within the plane of the tissue. Establishment of this planar cell polarity requires mechanisms that locally align polarized structures between neighbouring cells, as well as cues that provide global information about alignment relative to an axis of a tissue. In the Drosophila ovary, the cadherin Fat2 is required to orient actin filaments located at the basal side of follicle cells perpendicular to the long axis of the egg chamber. The mechanisms directing this orientation of actin filaments, however, remain unknown. Here we show, using genetic mosaic analysis, that fat2 is not essential for the local alignment of actin filaments between neighbouring cells. Moreover, we provide evidence that Fat2 is involved in the propagation of a cue specifying the orientation of actin filaments relative to the tissue axis. Monte Carlo simulations of actin filament orientation resemble the results of the genetic mosaic analysis, if it is assumed that a polarity signal can propagate from a signal source only through a connected chain of wild-type cells. Our results suggest that Fat2 is required for propagating global polarity information within the follicle epithelium through direct cell–cell contact. Our computational model might be more generally applicable to study collective cell polarization in tissues. |
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Keywords: | Drosophila follicle cell Fat2 planar cell polarity Monte Carlo simulation |
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