Exploring alternative models of rostral-caudal patterning in the zebrafish neurectoderm with computer simulations

Ajay B Chitnis; Motoyuki Itoh

doi:10.1016/j.gde.2004.06.002

Exploring alternative models of rostral-caudal patterning in the zebrafish neurectoderm with computer simulations

Curr Opin Genet Dev. 2004 Aug;14(4):415-21. doi: 10.1016/j.gde.2004.06.002.

Authors

Ajay B Chitnis¹, Motoyuki Itoh

Affiliation

¹ Unit on Vertebrate Neural Development, Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Building 6B, Room 3B 315, 6 Center Drive, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA. chitnisa@mail.nih.gov

PMID: 15261658
DOI: 10.1016/j.gde.2004.06.002

Abstract

The StarLogo and NetLogo programming environments allow developmental biologists to build computer models of cell-cell interactions in an epithelium and visualize emergent properties of hypothetical genetic regulatory networks operating in the cells. These environments were used to explore alternative models that show how a posteriorizing morphogen gradient might define gene-expression domains along the rostral-caudal axis in the zebrafish neurectoderm. The models illustrate how a hypothetical genetic network based on auto-activation and cross-repression could lead to establishment of discrete non-overlapping gene-expression domains.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Animals
Body Patterning / physiology*
Computer Simulation
Ectoderm / physiology*
Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental*
Models, Biological*
Morphogenesis
Zebrafish / embryology*