Tunable global features governing rosette formation

Determine the tunable, global biophysical features that favor or hinder the formation of multicellular rosettes, defined as assemblies of five or more cells around a common center, in cellular layers.

Background

Multicellular rosettes—assemblies of five or more cells meeting around a common center—are observed across diverse biological contexts including morphogenesis, wound healing, and cancer. Despite various molecular insights, the broader, system-level factors controlling their emergence have not been comprehensively identified.

This paper investigates minimal ingredients for rosette formation using an Active Voronoi model, highlighting the role of symmetry breaking via curvature-inducing defects and the stabilizing effect of alignment interactions. The authors also present fluorescence microscopy experiments on iPSC-derived neural populations that form rosettes, providing empirical support for model predictions. The quoted passage frames the unresolved question regarding which tunable, global features fundamentally regulate rosette formation.