Fig. 1. Example of lateral inhibition among a small group of cells. (A) Sample of undifferentiated cells (grey squares) created with the exclusion zone model (d_min=15.96 µm, =0.2; A=1 mm²; N=1000). Six central cells are numbered for plots in (C,D). Scale bar: 20 µm. In this case, all-neighbours inhibition (ANI) was used, so cell 1 has five neighbouring cells (labelled 2-6). By contrast, cell 3 has six neighbours, because its Voronoi polygon has six edges. If nearest-neighbour inhibition (NNI) was used, cell 1 would have just one neighbour (cell 2). (B) The same cells once the levels of Delta and Notch have stabilised. Open circles denote primary fate cells, filled circles are secondary fate cells. Cell 1 acquires primary fate, cells 2-6 adopt secondary fate. (C,D) The levels of Delta and Notch during development for the six cells highlighted in A. Time is measured in arbitrary units (a.u.).

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