Dresden 2017 – scientific programme
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 59: Multi-Cellular-Systems
BP 59.3: Talk
Friday, March 24, 2017, 10:15–10:30, HÜL 386
Dynamic pattern scaling as a critical point of self-organized growth control — Steffen Werner1,2, Daniel Aguilar-Hidalgo1, Ortrud Wartlick3, Marcos González-Gaitán4, Frank Jülicher1, and •Benjamin M. Friedrich2 — 1MPI for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden, Germany — 2cfaed, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany — 3MRC Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology, University College London, UK — 4Department of Biochemistry, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
We present a theoretical framework of self-organized growth control, inspired by the mutual interplay of pattern formation and growth in developing organisms. There, signaling molecules instruct tissue growth, while in turn growth changes the spatial concentration profiles of the molecules, e.g. by convection and dilution. By studying this feedback loop between chemical pattern formation and growth dynamics, we identify a critical point that corresponds to perfect proportionate pattern scaling and homogeneously growing domains.
We apply our theory to two biological models systems, the wing and the eye of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Despite their different developmental dynamics, our theoretical framework can quantitatively explain patterning and growth in both systems, including proportionate scaling of chemical patterns with tissue size. This observation suggests that the biological system is tuned close to criticality, in order to generate pattern scaling and homogeneous growth.