Hence, a major challenge now is to ascertain how the spatially correlated
supracellular patterns of extracellular matrix alignments and intracellular microtubule
alignments are determined and whether they are causally related. Are the
alignments set up in response to the transmission of diffusible chemical signals
through the extracellular matrix of a scale and/or its associated cell layers? Intercellularly
coordinated cytoskeletal/transmembrane interactions (Tucker, 1981) may
also be involved where the highly flattened cells come into close contact at their
margins.