Abstract

Cells in multicellular organisms often do not intermingle freely with each other. Differential cell affinities can contribute to organizing cells into different tissues. Drosophila limbs and the vertebrate central nervous system are subdivided into compartments. Cells in adjacent compartments do not mix. Cell interactions mediated by Notch-family receptors have been implicated in the specification of these compartment boundaries. Two recent reports analyze the role of the Notch signaling pathway in the generation of an affinity boundary in the Drosophila wing.1,2 The first report1 analyzes the connection between Notch and the actin cytoskeleton. The second report2 analyzes the differential requirements of Notch and the transcription factor Supressor of Hairless in generating the affinity boundary. BioEssays 28: 113–116, 2006. © 2006 Wiley periodicals, Inc.