Berlin 2008 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 16: Pattern Formation and Developmental Processes
BP 16.5: Vortrag
Mittwoch, 27. Februar 2008, 18:30–18:45, C 243
Collective processes set the clock in vertebrate segmentation — •Saul Ares1, Luis Morelli1, Leah Herrgen2, Christian Schroeter2, Andrew C. Oates2, and Frank Julicher1 — 1Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden, Germany — 2Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany
Somitogenesis, the first stage of the body axis segmentation in vertebrate development, is a complex process driven by the interplay of oscillations in gene expression and the elongation of the body axis. In order to understand it quantitatively at a tissue level, a theoretical framework based on discrete coupled phase oscillators with a time delay in their mutual communication has been proposed. Global properties as the time necessary for the formation of a somite can be calculated, finding a scenario of multiple solutions and multistability. To get analytic expressions from the theory, a continuum limit for arbitrary values of the time delay is formulated. This continuum formulation allows to determine the parameters of the theory from available data on the wavelength of the patterns of gene expression. The fit to the experimental data supports the main conclusion of the theory: the periodicity of somitogenesis arises as a collective process where the intercellular communication plays a key role in the setting of the frequency of the segmentation clock.