Morphogenesis by coupled regulatory networks: Reliable control of positional information and proportion regulation

JOURNAL OF THEORETICAL BIOLOGY

卷:261

Article

Rohlf, Thimo^1,2  Bornholdt, Stefan³ 

[1] Genopole, Epigen Project, F-91034 Evry, France

[2] Max Planck Inst Math Sci, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany

[3] Univ Bremen, Inst Theoret Phys, D-28334 Bremen, Germany

关键词: Morphogenesis;    Pattern formation;    Gene regulatory networks;    Positional information;    Proportion regulation;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.jtbi.2009.07.023

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Based on a non-equilibrium mechanism for spatial pattern formation we study how position information can be controlled by locally coupled discrete dynamical networks, similar to gene regulation networks of cells in a developing multicellular organism. As an example we study the developmental problems of domain formation and proportion regulation in the presence of noise, as well as in the presence of cell flow. We find that networks that solve this task exhibit a hierarchical structure of information processing and are of similar complexity as developmental circuits of living cells. Proportion regulation is scalable with system size and leads to sharp, precisely localized boundaries of gene expression domains, even for large numbers of cells. A detailed analysis of noise induced dynamics, using a mean field approximation, shows that noise in gene expression states stabilizes (rather than disrupts) the spatial pattern in the presence of cell movements, both for stationary as well as growing systems. Finally, we discuss how this mechanism could be realized in the highly dynamic environment of growing tissues in multicellular organisms. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

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