Fig. 6: Cell fusion between CG units is atypical.
a–d Propagation of information/signals between fused areas was assessed by FLIP in clones generated by CoinFLP with cytosolic GFP (green) and RFP (magenta) in CG. A GFP expressing clone with areas of partial and no overlap with an RFP expressing clone was selected. For each experiment, continuous bleaching was performed in a small area (dashed rectangle, white), and loss of fluorescence in different regions was measured (see Supplementary Fig. 6c for values). Top panels depict the assessed area before (pre-bleach) and after bleaching (post-bleach). Bottom panels show the bleached channel only, pseudocolored with thermal LUT. Scale bars: 10 μm. For each bleaching experiment, the schematic shows the bleach on a map representing the different zones determined by the GFP/mCherry ratio (dashed box), and illustrates the corresponding conclusion. Solid orange lines indicate full diffusion barriers and dashed lines the existence of compartmental continuity, the extent of which is indicated by the interval between the dots. a Continuous bleaching of GFP in the non-overlapping part of the GFP clone (GFP zone), Supplementary Movie 8. b Continuous bleaching of mCherry in the overlapping part of the GFP clone with high GFP intensities (HGFP subzone), Supplementary Movie 9. c Continuous bleaching of mCherry in the overlapping part of the GFP clone with lower GFP intensities (LGFP subzone), Supplementary Movie 10. d Continuous bleaching of GFP overlapping part of the GFP clone with lower GFP intensities (LGFP subzone), Supplementary Movie 11. e Schematics of the findings from a to d representing the outcome of fusion between CG units, with N describing the unknown number of original mCherry cells. As we cannot know the number of mCherry original cells in the movie area, we cannot distinguish between whether (i) the GFP clone fused with two mCherry cells to independently generate LGFP and HGFP; or (ii) the GFP clone fused with one mCherry cell (mCherry 2), forming a mixed compartment that further splits.
