The non-proliferative nature of ascidian folliculogenesis as a model of highly ordered cellular topology distinct from proliferative epithelia.

Previous studies have addressed why and how mono-stratified epithelia adopt a polygonal topology. One major additional, and yet unanswered question is how the frequency of different cell shapes is achieved and whether the same distribution applies between non-proliferative and proliferative epithelia. We compared different proliferative and non-proliferative epithelia from a range of organisms as well as Drosophila melanogaster mutants, deficient for apoptosis or hyperproliferative.