Abstract

How cellular activity is coordinated over long spatial and temporal timescales to build complex 3D tissue morphologies during animal development remains a fascinating open question in biology. We study collective cellular behavior during epithelial morphogenesis using the Drosophila wing as a model. At the transition between larval and pupal stages, the developing wing tissue undergoes a complex 3D remodeling process called eversion, where deep tissue folds unfold and the dorsal and ventral surfaces find each other and appose. Using confocal and multi-angle light sheet microscopy, we have quantified the patterns of cell and tissue shape changes occurring during this process. Our data suggest that spatial patterns of cell morphology that emerge during the larval growth phase may prepone particular 3D tissue shape changes during the subsequent eversion stage. We are testing this idea using theoretical approaches and genetic perturbation. This work broadens our understanding of tissue morphogenesis by describing a novel interplay between cellular packing geometry and 3D tissue shape changes.