Robustness of biological pattern formation in spatio-temporal morphogen variations #

Mohit Dalwadi, Philip Pearce

14:10 Tuesday in 3Q68.

Part of the Biofilms and pattern formation session.

Abstract #

In biological systems, chemical signals termed morphogens self-organise into patterns that are vital for many physiological processes. As observed by Turing in 1952, these patterns are in a state of continual development, and are usually transitioning from one pattern into another. How do cells decode these spatio-temporal patterns into signals in the presence of confounding effects caused by unpredictable or heterogeneous environments?

In this talk, we develop a general theory of pattern formation in spatio-temporal variations of ‘pre-pattern’ morphogens, which determine gene-regulatory network parameters. Through mathematical analysis, we identify universal dynamical regimes that apply to wide classes of biological systems. We apply our theory to paradigmatic pattern-forming systems, and predict that they are robust with respect to non-physiological morphogen variations. More broadly, we predict that the dynamics of pattern-forming systems with spatio-temporally varying parameters can be classified based on the bifurcations in their governing equations.