Cells act as building blocks of multicellular organisms, forming higher-order structures at different biological scales. Niches, tissues and, ultimately, entire organisms consist of single cells that remain in constant communication. Emergence of developmental patterns and tissue architecture thus relies on single cells acting as a collective, coordinating growth, migration, cell fate transitions and cell type sorting. For this, information has to be transmitted forward from cells to tissues and fed back to the individual cell to allow dynamic and robust coordination. Here, we define the design principles of tissue organisation integrating chemical, genetic and mechanical cues. We also review the state-of-the-art technologies used for dissecting collective cellular behaviours at single cell– and tissue-level resolution. We finally outline future challenges that lie in a comprehensive understanding of how single cells coordinate across biological scales to insure robust development, homoeostasis and regeneration of tissues.

细胞充当多细胞生物的组成部分，在不同的生物学规模上形成更高阶的结构。生态位，组织以及最终的整个生物体由保持持续通讯的单个细胞组成。因此，发育模式和组织结构的出现依赖于单个细胞，这些细胞共同作用，协调生长，迁移，细胞命运转变和细胞类型分类。为此，必须将信息从细胞向前传输到组织，然后反馈到单个细胞，以实现动态和强大的协调。在这里，我们定义了结合化学，遗传和机械提示的组织组织的设计原理。我们还回顾了用于以单个细胞和组织水平的分辨率剖析集体细胞行为的最新技术。