title: Mechanisms of regulating tissue elongation in Drosophila wing: impact of oriented cell divisions, oriented mechanical forces, and reduced cell size.
abstract: Regulation of cell growth and cell division plays fundamental roles in tissue morphogenesis. However, the mechanisms of regulating tissue elongation through cell growth and cell division are still not well understood. The wing imaginal disc of Drosophila provides a model system that has been widely used to study tissue morphogenesis. Here we use a recently developed two-dimensional cellular model to study the mechanisms of regulating tissue elongation in Drosophila wing. We simulate the effects of directional cues on tissue elongation. We also computationally analyze the role of reduced cell size. Our simulation results indicate that oriented cell divisions, oriented mechanical forces, and reduced cell size can all mediate tissue elongation, but they function differently. We show that oriented cell divisions and oriented mechanical forces act as directional cues during tissue elongation. Between these two directional cues, oriented mechanical forces have a stronger influence than oriented cell divisions. In addition, we raise the novel hypothesis that reduced cell size may significantly promote tissue elongation. We find that reduced cell size alone cannot drive tissue elongation. However, when combined with directional cues, such as oriented cell divisions or oriented mechanical forces, reduced cell size can significantly enhance tissue elongation in Drosophila wing. Furthermore, our simulation results suggest that reduced cell size has a short-term effect on cell topology by decreasing the frequency of hexagonal cells, which is consistent with experimental observations. Our simulation results suggest that cell divisions without cell growth play essential roles in tissue elongation.
authors: School of Biomedical Engineering and Med-X Research Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China ; Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America.
authors: Yingzi
authors: Y
authors: Li
authors: Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America ; CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology, SIBS, CAS, Shanghai, China.
authors: Hammad
authors: H
authors: Naveed
authors: Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America.
authors: Sema
authors: S
authors: Kachalo
authors: School of Biomedical Engineering and Med-X Research Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China ; Shanghai Center for Systems Biomedicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Ministry of Education, Shanghai, China ; Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Medical Equipment and Technology, Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality, Shanghai, China.
authors: Lisa X
authors: LX
authors: Xu
authors: Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America ; Shanghai Center for Systems Biomedicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Ministry of Education, Shanghai, China.
authors: Jie
authors: J
authors: Liang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D002455:Cell Division; D048429:Cell Size; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000166:cytology* / Q000254:growth & development*; D008954:Models, Biological; D014921:Wings, Animal / Q000166:cytology* / Q000254:growth & development*