  During epithelial wound healing, cell morphology near the healed wound and
the healing rate vary strongly among different developmental stages even for a
single species like \textit{Drosophila}. We develop deformable particle (DP)
model simulations to understand how variations in cell mechanics give rise to
distinct wound closure phenotypes in the \textit{Drosophila} embryonic ectoderm
and larval wing disc epithelium. We find that plastic deformation of the cell
membrane can generate large changes in cell shape consistent with wound closure
in the embryonic ectoderm. Our results show that the embryonic ectoderm is best
described by cell membranes with an elasto-plastic response, whereas the larval
wing disc is best described by cell membranes with an exclusively elastic
response. By varying the mechanical response of cell membranes in DP
simulations, we recapitulate the wound closure behavior of both the embryonic
ectoderm and the larval wing disc.
