Fig. 3: Cell shape dynamics across tissue formation and organogenesis during late embryogenesis.

A Visualization of cell shapes within whole embryo or within specific tissues/organs from various perspectives. B–D Depiction of dynamic cell shape changes in different tissues during late embryogenesis: skin cells (hypodermis) during dorsal intercalation (B), intestine cells during intestinal twisting and elongation (C), and body-wall muscle cells during the ingression of the AB-derived body-wall muscle cell (ABprpppppaa), which is indicated by an arrow (D). Developmental time and stage are shown on the left, with the last time point of the four-cell stage set as the time zero. E–G Quantification of cell irregularity (η) for the processes shown in (B–D). Panel (E) presents the average (solid dot) and standard deviation (solid line) of the irregularity for 9 skin cells, as indicated by arrowheads in (B), during the developmental timeline (t) in an exemplary embryo with the last time point of the four-cell stage set as the time zero. Panel (F) presents similar data for all cells during the developmental timeline (t) in an exemplary embryo. Panel (G) presents the average (solid dot) and standard deviation (solid line) of cell shape irregularity (η) for the cell ABprpppppaa during the developmental timeline (t) in eight embryos. In (E, G), the maximums and minimums are denoted by green and pink triangles respectively, and the correlation coefficients for the monotonic \(\eta -t\) curves are shown at the top. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.