Berlin 2012 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 17: Posters: Physics of Cells
BP 17.37: Poster
Mittwoch, 28. März 2012, 17:30–19:30, Poster A
Continuum Theory and Vertex Model Simulations of Self-organized Growth in Developing Epithelia — •Peer Mumcu1, Ortrud Wartlick2, Marcos González-Gaitán2, and Frank Jülicher1 — 1Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden, Germany — 2Department of Biochemistry and Department of Molecular Biology, Geneva University, Switzerland
Developing tissues possess intrinsic growth control mechanisms which determine the final size and shape. The basic principles of growth control are still poorly understood. However, there is a lot of evidence that certain morphogens act as growth factors and play a key role in this process. Morphogens are a special class of signaling molecules that are secreted from localized sources, spread throughout the tissue and form graded concentration profiles. We study growth control from a theoretical viewpoint using a two-dimensional vertex model that describes the organization of cells by a network of polygons, including the dynamics of morphogen distributions as additional variables. In this theoretical framework, we study the consequences of specific growth rules according to which cells divide when subject to relative temporal changes of the cellular morphogen levels. We discuss a scenario which is consistent with experimentally observed growth curves obtained in the fruit fly Drosophila. Furthermore we show that essential features of the vertex model simulations are captured by a simple dynamical system, which provides deeper insight into the dynamics and stability properties of the growing system.