Computational insights into Caenorhabditis elegans vulval development.

ABSTRACT: Studies of Caenorhabditis elegans vulval development provide a paradigm for pattern formation during animal development. The fates of the six vulval precursor cells are specified by the combined action of an inductive signal that activates the EGF receptor mitogen-activated PK signaling pathway (specifying a primary fate) and a lateral signal mediated by LIN-12/Notch (specifying a secondary fate). Here we use methods devised for the engineering of complex reactive systems to model a biological system. We have chosen the visual formalism of statecharts and use it to formalize Sternberg and Horvitz's 1989 model [Sternberg, P. W. & Horvitz, H. R. (1989) Cell 58, 679-693], which forms the basis for our current understanding of the interaction between these two signaling pathways. The construct

SUBMITTER: Fisher J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC548551 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature