Résumé
As has been known for almost 20 years, topological characteristics of polygonal proliferative epithelial cells of various animal and plant species are universal. Here, we address the question of whether this universality paradigm is applicable to the level of colonial organisms, i.e., at a significantly higher level of life organization than cell populations. By comparing the cellular structure of the epithelium with the arrangement of individual polyps in coral colonies, we discover common topological patterns at distinct levels of life structuring. We hypothesize that the mechanism behind this universality is a repulsion between structural units limited by a certain critical distance. By minimizing the corresponding repulsive energy, we produce packings, which are similar to the epithelial and colonial systems in the distribution of structural units by both the number of their neighbors and their area. The surprising analogies between the systems together with the developed theoretical approach could provide an efficient tool for further studies on morphogenesis, development, and evolution of living systems.