Stability of pattern formation in systems with dynamic source regions

Abstract

We explain the principles of gene expression pattern stabilization in systems of interacting, diffusible morphogens, with dynamically established source regions. Using a reaction-diffusion model with step-function production term, we identify the phase transition between low-precision indeterminate patterning and the phase in which a traveling, well-defined contact zone between two domains is formed. Our model analytically explains single- and two-gene domain dynamics and provides pattern stability conditions for all possible two-gene regulatory network motifs.

Final version, accepted for Physical Review Letters: https://journals.aps.org/prl/accepted/b307fYeeG7f1d48b152574e5e76e468c53a954a62

References in corpus (3)

• Bacterial growth: a statistical physicist's guide
• Robust formation of morphogen gradients
• An analytical approach to initiation of propagating fronts

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Stable developmental patterns of gene expression without morphogen gradients