Distribution of cellular shapes in monolayer cell sheets across the plant and animal kingdoms

Range ~ hexagons 45%: pentagons 25%: heptagons 20% %
Organism Various
Reference Gibson WT et al., Control of the mitotic cleavage plane by local epithelial topology. Cell. 2011 Feb 4 144(3):427-38. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2010.12.035. p.427 right column bottom paragraphPubMed ID21295702
Primary Source M.C. Gibson, A.B. Patel, R. Nagpal, N. Perrimon The emergence of geometric order in proliferating metazoan epithelia Nature, 442 (2006), pp. 1038–1041 & R.W. Korn, R.M. Spalding The geometry of plant epidermal cells New Phytol., 72 (1973), pp. 1357–1365 link & F.T. Lewis The correlation between cell division and the shapes and sizes of prismatic cells in the epidermis of cucumis Anat. Rec., 38 (1928), pp. 341–376 link PubMed ID16900102
Comments P.427 right column bottom paragraph:"Indeed, empirical investigation confirms that many monolayer cell sheets across the plant and animal kingdoms converge on a default equilibrium distribution of cellular shapes, with approximately 45% hexagons, 25% pentagons, and 20% heptagons (primary sources)."
Entered by Uri M
ID 112080