A spatio-temporal model of Notch signalling in the zebrafish segmentation clock: conditions for synchronised oscillatory dynamics.

ABSTRACT: In the vertebrate embryo, tissue blocks called somites are laid down in head-to-tail succession, a process known as somitogenesis. Research into somitogenesis has been both experimental and mathematical. For zebrafish, there is experimental evidence for oscillatory gene expression in cells in the presomitic mesoderm (PSM) as well as evidence that Notch signalling synchronises the oscillations in neighbouring PSM cells. A biological mechanism has previously been proposed to explain these phenomena. Here we have converted this mechanism into a mathematical model of partial differential equations in which the nuclear and cytoplasmic diffusion of protein and mRNA molecules is explicitly considered. By performing simulations, we have found ranges of values for the model parameters (such as diff

SUBMITTER: Terry AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3046134 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature