Local accumulation times for spatial difference in morphogen concentration

• Main Authors: Xiaoqing Wen, Hongwei Yin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2017-01-01
• Series: Results in Physics
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211379717312755

During development of multicellular organisms, spatial patterns of cells and tissue organizations rely on the action of morphogens, which are signaling molecules and act as dose-dependent regulators of gene expression and cellular differentiation. Since some experimental evidences have indicated that the spatial difference in morphogen concentration regulates cellular proliferation rather than this concentration profile in developing tissues, we propose spatially discrete models to describe this difference for a synthesis-diffusion-degradation process of morphogen in infinite and finite development fields, respectively. For both of models, we respectively derive analytical expressions of local accumulation times, which are required to form the steady state of the spatial difference in morphogen concentration. Our results show that the local accumulation times for the spatial difference in morphogen concentrations are different from the ones for morphogen concentration profiles. Keywords: Morphogen, Local accumulation time, Differential difference equations