Role of Cell Morphology in Classical Delta-Notch Pattern Formation

Notch signaling is responsible for creating contrasting states of differentiation among neighboring cells during organism’s early development. Various factors can affect this highly conserved intercellular signaling pathway, for the formation of fine-grained pattern in cell tissues. As cells undergo dramatic structural changes during development, one of the factors that can influence cell-cell communication is cell morphology. In this study, we elucidate the role of cell morphology on mosaic pattern formation in a realistic epithelial layer cell model. We discovered that cell signaling strength is inversely related to the cell area, such that smaller cells have higher probability/tendency of becoming signal producing cells as compared to larger cells during early embryonic days. In a nutshell, our work highlights the role of cell morphology on the stochastic cell fate decision process in the epithelial layer of multicellular organisms.