Nature Communications (Jul 2018)

Scutoids are a geometrical solution to three-dimensional packing of epithelia

  • Pedro Gómez-Gálvez,
  • Pablo Vicente-Munuera,
  • Antonio Tagua,
  • Cristina Forja,
  • Ana M. Castro,
  • Marta Letrán,
  • Andrea Valencia-Expósito,
  • Clara Grima,
  • Marina Bermúdez-Gallardo,
  • Óscar Serrano-Pérez-Higueras,
  • Florencia Cavodeassi,
  • Sol Sotillos,
  • María D. Martín-Bermudo,
  • Alberto Márquez,
  • Javier Buceta,
  • Luis M. Escudero

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05376-1
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1
pp. 1 – 14

Abstract

Read online

Cell arrangement in the plane of epithelia is well studied, but its three-dimensional packing is largely unknown. Here the authors model curved epithelia and predict that cells adopt a geometrical shape they call “scutoid”, resulting in different apical and basal neighbours, and confirm the presence of scutoids in curved tissues.