We are developing computational models of shape transformations
during epithelial morphogenesis, a set of processes which convert two
dimensional sheets of cells into three dimensional structures. Our work
on epithelial morphogenesis grew out of studies of pattern formation in
the developing
Drosophila egg. In this system, an epithelial sheet
that envelops the growing oocyte gives rise to the three-dimensional
structures of the eggshell, including the respiratory appendages. Each of
the appendages is derived from a flat primordium which is established
by the localized activation of the ERK pathway, which establishes precise
patterns of gene expression and guides a morphogenesis that proceeds
through a sequence of ordered cell rearrangements.
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