Pattern formation in the epithelium of the oviduct of Japanese quail

Cellular patterns of the oviduct epithelium from the Japanese quail were examined during maturation. The epithelium of a juvenile bird showed a jigsaw puzzle pattern consisting of a single, undifferentiated cell type. At the start of maturation, cells were rearranged into a pattern in which the length of boundaries between goblet type gland (G-) cells and ciliated (C-) cells (G-C boundaries) were maximized. At this stage, the surface area of G-cells was much smaller, but G-cells are more than 2 times more numerous than C-cells. Cells than gradually rearranged themselves into the checkerboard pattern through an increase in the proportion of C-cells and enlargement of the G-cells. At all times of maturation, the length of G-C boundaries was maximized. These observations strongly support the theory that the cellular pattern of the quail oviduct epithelium is spontaneously constructed by maximizing the length of boundaries between two different types of cells owing to the fact that theirs is the greatest adhesion capacity (Yamanaka and Honda, 1990).