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Temporal control of self-organized pattern formation without morphogen gradients in bacteria.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Payne, S; Li, B; Cao, Y; Schaeffer, D; Ryser, MD; You, L
Published in: Mol Syst Biol
October 8, 2013

Diverse mechanisms have been proposed to explain biological pattern formation. Regardless of their specific molecular interactions, the majority of these mechanisms require morphogen gradients as the spatial cue, which are either predefined or generated as a part of the patterning process. However, using Escherichia coli programmed by a synthetic gene circuit, we demonstrate here the generation of robust, self-organized ring patterns of gene expression in the absence of an apparent morphogen gradient. Instead of being a spatial cue, the morphogen serves as a timing cue to trigger the formation and maintenance of the ring patterns. The timing mechanism enables the system to sense the domain size of the environment and generate patterns that scale accordingly. Our work defines a novel mechanism of pattern formation that has implications for understanding natural developmental processes.

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Published In

Mol Syst Biol

DOI

EISSN

1744-4292

Publication Date

October 8, 2013

Volume

9

Start / End Page

697

Location

England

Related Subject Headings

  • Time Factors
  • Plasmids
  • Muramidase
  • Models, Statistical
  • Genes, Synthetic
  • Gene-Environment Interaction
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial
  • Escherichia coli Proteins
  • Escherichia coli
  • Bioinformatics
 

Citation

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Payne, S., Li, B., Cao, Y., Schaeffer, D., Ryser, M. D., & You, L. (2013). Temporal control of self-organized pattern formation without morphogen gradients in bacteria. Mol Syst Biol, 9, 697. https://doi.org/10.1038/msb.2013.55
Payne, Stephen, Bochong Li, Yangxiaolu Cao, David Schaeffer, Marc D. Ryser, and Lingchong You. “Temporal control of self-organized pattern formation without morphogen gradients in bacteria.Mol Syst Biol 9 (October 8, 2013): 697. https://doi.org/10.1038/msb.2013.55.
Payne S, Li B, Cao Y, Schaeffer D, Ryser MD, You L. Temporal control of self-organized pattern formation without morphogen gradients in bacteria. Mol Syst Biol. 2013 Oct 8;9:697.
Payne, Stephen, et al. “Temporal control of self-organized pattern formation without morphogen gradients in bacteria.Mol Syst Biol, vol. 9, Oct. 2013, p. 697. Pubmed, doi:10.1038/msb.2013.55.
Payne S, Li B, Cao Y, Schaeffer D, Ryser MD, You L. Temporal control of self-organized pattern formation without morphogen gradients in bacteria. Mol Syst Biol. 2013 Oct 8;9:697.
Journal cover image

Published In

Mol Syst Biol

DOI

EISSN

1744-4292

Publication Date

October 8, 2013

Volume

9

Start / End Page

697

Location

England

Related Subject Headings

  • Time Factors
  • Plasmids
  • Muramidase
  • Models, Statistical
  • Genes, Synthetic
  • Gene-Environment Interaction
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial
  • Escherichia coli Proteins
  • Escherichia coli
  • Bioinformatics