Program in Biophysics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Cell. 2011 Feb 4;144(3):427-38. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2010.12.035.
For nearly 150 years, it has been recognized that cell shape strongly influences the orientation of the mitotic cleavage plane (e.g., Hofmeister, 1863). However, we still understand little about the complex interplay between cell shape and cleavage-plane orientation in epithelia, where polygonal cell geometries emerge from multiple factors, including cell packing, cell growth, and cell division itself. Here, using mechanical simulations, we show that the polygonal shapes of individual cells can systematically bias the long-axis orientations of their adjacent mitotic neighbors. Strikingly, analyses of both animal epithelia and plant epidermis confirm a robust and nearly identical correlation between local cell topology and cleavage-plane orientation in vivo. Using simple mathematics, we show that this effect derives from fundamental packing constraints. Our results suggest that local epithelial topology is a key determinant of cleavage-plane orientation, and that cleavage-plane bias may be a widespread property of polygonal cell sheets in plants and animals.
近 150 年来，人们已经认识到细胞形状强烈影响有丝分裂分裂面的方向（例如，Hofmeister，1863）。然而，我们仍然不太了解上皮细胞形状和分裂面方向之间的复杂相互作用，在上皮细胞中，多边形细胞几何形状由多种因素产生，包括细胞包装、细胞生长和细胞分裂本身。在这里，我们使用力学模拟表明，单个细胞的多边形形状可以系统地偏向其相邻有丝分裂邻居的长轴方向。引人注目的是，对动物上皮组织和植物表皮的分析都证实了体内局部细胞拓扑结构和分裂面方向之间存在稳健且几乎相同的相关性。我们使用简单的数学方法表明，这种效应源于基本的包装约束。我们的结果表明，局部上皮拓扑结构是分裂面方向的关键决定因素，并且分裂面偏向可能是植物和动物中多边形细胞片的广泛特性。
