Kozak, Eva L.Miranda-Rodríguez, Jerónimo R.Borges, AugustoDierkes, KaiMineo, AlessandroPinto-Teixeira, FilipoViader Llargués, OriolSolon, JérômeChara, OsvaldoLópez-Schier, Hernán2023-06-202023-06-202023Kozak EL, Miranda-Rodríguez JR, Borges A, Dierkes K, Mineo A, Pinto-Teixeira F, Viader-Llargués O, Solon J, Chara O, López-Schier H. Quantitative videomicroscopy reveals latent control of cell-pair rotations in vivo. Development. 2023 May 1;150(9):dev200975. DOI: 10.1242/dev.2009750950-1991http://hdl.handle.net/10230/57260Collective cell rotations are widely used during animal organogenesis. Theoretical and in vitro studies have conceptualized rotating cells as identical rigid-point objects that stochastically break symmetry to move monotonously and perpetually within an inert environment. However, it is unclear whether this notion can be extrapolated to a natural context, where rotations are ephemeral and heterogeneous cellular cohorts interact with an active epithelium. In zebrafish neuromasts, nascent sibling hair cells invert positions by rotating ≤180° around their geometric center after acquiring different identities via Notch1a-mediated asymmetric repression of Emx2. Here, we show that this multicellular rotation is a three-phasic movement that progresses via coherent homotypic coupling and heterotypic junction remodeling. We found no correlation between rotations and epithelium-wide cellular flow or anisotropic resistive forces. Moreover, the Notch/Emx2 status of the cell dyad does not determine asymmetric interactions with the surrounding epithelium. Aided by computer modeling, we suggest that initial stochastic inhomogeneities generate a metastable state that poises cells to move and spontaneous intercellular coordination of the resulting instabilities enables persistently directional rotations, whereas Notch1a-determined symmetry breaking buffers rotational noise.application/pdfeng© 2023. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided that the original work is properly attributed.info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1242/dev.200975Multicellular rotationsPatterningRegenerationSymmetry breakingZebrafishinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess