In Drosophila imaginal wing discs that contain cells that proliferate at different rates because they carry Minute mutations,fast-growing, non-minute M+ cells contribute much more to the final disc than do slow-growing M/+ cells. Yet, the final disc size is unaffected. This suggests that specific interactions between cells may cause the elimination by apoptosis of slow-growing cells by fast-growing cells- so- called cell competition. However, Ginés Morata and colleagues now report that prevention of apoptosis does not affect the compartment size in developing imaginal discs, even in the presence of overgrowing M+ clones (see p. 3747). The overgrowth of M+ cells, they report, is solely due to their higher division rate. The researchers propose, therefore, that the contribution of each cell type to the disc compartment is exclusively determined by its division rate rather than by cell competition, and that a size control mechanism stops growth once the compartment reaches the correct size, a conclusion that is supported by their computer simulations.
Size control: no (cell) competition
Size control: no (cell) competition. Development 15 November 2009; 136 (22): e2201. doi:
Download citation file:
Advertisement
Cited by
Call for papers: Uncovering Developmental Diversity
Development invites you to submit your latest research to our upcoming special issue: Uncovering Developmental Diversity. This issue will be coordinated by our academic Editor Cassandra Extavour (Harvard University, USA) alongside two Guest Editors: Liam Dolan (Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology, Austria) and Karen Sears (University of California Los Angeles, USA).
Choose Development in 2024
In this Editorial, Development Editor-in-Chief James Briscoe and Executive Editor Katherine Brown explain how you support your community by publishing in Development and how the journal champions serious science, community connections and progressive publishing.
Journal Meeting: From Stem Cells to Human Development
Register now for the 2024 Development Journal Meeting From Stem Cells to Human Development. Early-bird registration deadline: 3 May. Abstract submission deadline: 21 June.
Pluripotency of a founding field: rebranding developmental biology
This collaborative Perspective, the result of a workshop held in 2023, proposes a set of community actions to increase the visibility of the developmental biology field. The authors make recommendations for new funding streams, frameworks for collaborations and mechanisms by which members of the community can promote themselves and their research.
Read & Publish Open Access publishing: what authors say
We have had great feedback from authors who have benefitted from our Read & Publish agreement with their institution and have been able to publish Open Access with us without paying an APC. Read what they had to say.