DISSECT is a tool to segment and explore cell and tissue mechanics in highly deformed 3D epithelia
The development of new imaging techniques offers the possibility to go beyond the analysis of mostly flat surfaces and image and analyze complex tissue organization in depth. Here, we describe a method, called DISSECT, that offers the opportunity to extract automatically, in strongly deformed epithelia, a precise characterization of the spatial organization of a given cytoskeletal network combined with morphological quantifications in highly remodeled three-dimensional (3D) epithelial tissues. We believe that this method, applied here to Drosophila tissues, will be of general interest in the expanding field of morphogenesis and tissue biomechanics.