Fig. 4: With equal hexatic and nematic order, the defect density per cell depends on the monolayer density.
From: Hexanematic crossover in epithelial monolayers depends on cell adhesion and cell density
a, b The nematic defect density, defined by the number of defects per 100 cells, as a function of the coarse-graining radius and the mean cell-cell distance for MDCK-II WT and E-cad KO cells, respectively. The number of nematic defects created by the same number of cells was found to be independent of the cell density. At the hexanematic crossover, here marked by white dots, the number of defects increases with increasing mean cell-cell distance. c A smooth nematic director field at the hexanematic crossover with defects of charge ± 1/2 (green, ZO-1 and blue, nuclei). d The number of nematic and hexatic defects formed by MDCK-II WT and E-cad KO cells versus the mean cell-cell distance. Statistics: D1: NWT = 12; D2: NWT = 35; D3: NWT = 110 and NKO = 13; D4: NWT = 61 and NKO = 123; D5: NWT = 8 and NKO = 54; D6: NKO = 26 from three independent experiments. Error bars represent the standard deviation. Source data are provided as Source Data file.
