During development a cellular population, the so-called "organizer," ensures segregation of the cells that lead to the dorsal (D) and ventral (V) parts of the wing blade of Drosophila. In Canela-Xandri et al. (10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002153), the authors shed light on the mechanical and dynamical properties of cells necessary to perform such a task robustly as cells grow and proliferate. The study also unveils how the organizer is conveniently scaled as the wing tissue grows. The image artistically depicts a snapshot of the study's simulations: dorsal and ventral cells at the wing compartments bulk (white), organizer cells (red), and the so-called DV boundary (green line). In this study the authors used a dynamical vertex model that accounts for the forces acting on cells and that includes the modeling of the cell cycle duration and cleavage with stochastic variability. In summary, the paper presents a theoretical and computational approach for understanding, in a quantitative and predictive manner, the dynamics, structure, and stability of the DV organizer.

Image Credit: Javier Buceta, Computer Simulation and Modeling (Co.S.Mo.) Lab, Parc Cientific de Barcelona, Spain.