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Role of correlated glassy dynamics in developing tissues

Ascertain whether correlated glassy dynamics driven by long-range elastic interactions between cells, previously reported in epithelial tissue cultures, also occur and play a functional role in developing tissues such as the Drosophila wing epithelium.

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Background

In the Discussion, the authors propose that the Drosophila wing epithelium may behave as a glassy "solid that flows," where long-range elastic interactions could produce correlated glassy dynamics. Such dynamics have been reported in cell cultures.

They explicitly state that it remains to be determined whether these correlated glassy dynamics play a role in developing tissues, identifying this as an unresolved question.

References

A possible physical picture of the Drosophila wing epithelium that could account for our observations, is that of a glassy material, or as was put forward in glass literature, a solid that flows . In other words, the long-range elastic interactions between cells would lead to correlated glassy dynamics, which has been reported in tissue cultures , and it remains to be seen whether they indeed play a role in developing tissues.

— Cell divisions imprint long lasting elastic strain fields in epithelial tissues (2406.03433 - Tahaei et al., 5 Jun 2024) in Discussion