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【Abstract】

Animal tissues exhibit intricate arrangements of various cell types forming elaborate patterns. In the auditory epithelium, crucial for hearing, two distinct cell types, hair cells and supporting cells, form a checkerboard pattern. This pattern, conserved across evolutionary lineages, plays a critical role in auditory function. Our research group has uncovered dynamic processes of cellular pattern formation, involving rearrangements, movements, and changes in cell shapes. These morphogenetic processes primarily depend on intercellular adhesion systems, with cell rearrangements facilitated by differential adhesion and cortical tension. The expression of diverse cell adhesion molecules in numerous cell types within tissues suggests the involvement of multiple adhesive systems in complex cellular patterning. However, our understanding of the coordinated interplay among these adhesion systems and cell movements remains incomplete in elucidating the complex mechanisms governing cell patterning. In this seminar, I will discuss the fundamental principles governing the self-organizing dynamics of cells and molecules underlying the morphogenetic process of biological tissue formation.