Cell competition, growth and size control in the Drosophila wing imaginal disc

We report here experiments aimed at understanding the connections between cell competition and growth in the Drosophila wing disc. The principal assay has been to generate discs containing marked cells that proliferate at different rates and to study their interactions and their contribution to the final structure. It is known that single clones of fast-dividing cells within a compartment may occupy the larger part of the compartment without affecting its size. This has suggested the existence of interactions involving cell competition between fast- and slow-dividing cells directed to accommodate the contribution of each cell to the final compartment. Here we show that indeed fast-dividing cells can outcompete slow-dividing ones in their proximity. However, we argue that this elimination is of little consequence because preventing apoptosis, and therefore cell competition, in those compartments does not affect the size of the clones or the size of the compartments. Our experiments indicate that cells within a compartment proliferate autonomously at their own rate. The contribution of each cell to the compartment is exclusively determined by its division rate within the frame of a size control mechanism that stops growth once the compartment has reached the final arresting size. This is supported by a computer simulation of the contribution of individual fast clones growing within a population of slower dividing cells and without interacting with them. The values predicted by the simulation are very close to those obtained experimentally.