Keeping up with the neighbours: local synchronisation of cell fate decisions during development

Even before the advent of multicellular life, unicellular creatures would communicate with their neighbours to coordinate their behaviours. Multicellular organisms have the particular challenge of orchestrating the differentiation of stem and progenitor cells to generate and maintain coherent functional tissues. However, stem and progenitor cells face a problem: their differentiation response can be buffeted by oscillations or stochastic fluctuations in intrinsic regulators. This generates cell-to-cell variability, which can be further compounded when extrinsic cues don't provide clear unambiguous instructions. So, left to their own devices, cells may differentiate at different rates or different directions even in response to the same cues. Fortunately, cells in multicellular organisms are not left to their own devices: they continually sense and respond to the behaviours of their neighbours. Here I discuss when, where, and how stem and progenitor cells communicate to synchronise their response to differentiation cues. I highlight technical challenges in identifying such synchronisation mechanisms, and survey emerging technologies that may help overcome these challenges.