Dresden 2011 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 10: Posters: Tissue Dynamics \& Developmental Processes
BP 10.12: Poster
Montag, 14. März 2011, 17:15–20:00, P3
Amplitude equation description of vertebrate segmentation — •Adrian Jacobo1, Damià Gomila2, Manuel Matías2, Saul Ares1, Luis Morelli1, Andrew Oates3, and Frank Jülicher1 — 1Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden — 2Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Physics and Complex Systems (IFISC), Palma de Mallorca, Spain — 3Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden
The segmentation of the vertebrate body axis is a rhythmic and sequential process controlled by a multicellular clock. This clock has been described either by models of regulatory networks or by simpler descriptions in terms of phase oscillators. While phase oscillators do not consider amplitude effects, gene regulatory networks are too complex to draw any general conclusion about them. Here we address the effects of the amplitude of the oscillations in the segmentation clock. We propose a model based on the Complex Ginzburg-Landau equation. This equation describes an oscillatory medium close to a supercritical Hopf bifurcation, in agreement with accepted gene regulatory network models of the segmentation clock. We find that the amplitude introduces instabilities to the system which are not present in phase descriptions, and were not described by genetic regulatory networks. These instabilities can lead to distinct regimes, including spatiotemporal chaos. Our theory suggests perturbations to developing embryos that could disrupt the behavior of the segmentation clock.