Tight Coordination of Growth and Differentiation between Germline and Soma Provides Robustness for Drosophila Egg Development

International audienceGraphical Abstract Highlights Somatic follicular epithelium and germline cyst control each other's growth This bidirectional control also ensures control of cell differentiation timing PI3K and TORC1 control differentiation but are not regulated by the adjacent tissue This mechanism ensures high robustness of egg development In Brief The development of adjacent tissues often needs to be coordinated. Here, Va-chias et al. show that, in each Drosophila ovarian follicle, somatic cells and germ cells intrinsically synchronize their growth and differentiation in relation to each other. Classical growth pathways such as PI3K or TORC1 also influence differentiation timing but only respond to extrinsic cues. This multidimensional intrinsic coordination ensures high robustness of the developmental steps to produce mature oocytes with high reproducibility