Robust morphogenesis by chaotic dynamics

Abstract

This research illustrates that complex dynamics of gene products enable the creation of any prescribed cellular differentiation patterns. These complex dynamics can take the form of chaotic, stochastic, or noisy chaotic dynamics. Based on this outcome and previous research, it is established that a generic open chemical reactor can generate an exceptionally large number of different cellular patterns. The mechanism of pattern generation is robust under perturbations and it is based on a combination of Turing’s machines, Turing instability and L. Wolpert’s gradients. These results can help us to explain the formidable adaptive capacities of biochemical systems.

Evolution of biological cooperation: an algorithmic approach

“…In this context, represents the number of environmental constraints, corresponding to different stress scenarios, and are probabilities to survive between replications under the -th stress scenario with genotype and GRN parameters . In simpler cases, such as a chain of reactions of the Michaelis–Menten type, this fitness can be reduced to the gene-trait maps, as recently investigated in 20 , 32 , 33 . In classical theory ( 18 , 19 , 34 ), the fitness is fixed, and only the genotype evolves.…”

Transition to Multicellularity and Peto Paradox

“…Moreover, it is shown that reaction-diffusion models are capable of generating any cell pattern, i.e., they potentially have a formidable pattern capacity. In fact, if we combine Turing's ideas with the celebrated Wolpert concept of positional information (see [52]), then the reaction-diffusion models (even with two components ) are capable of generating all possible cell patterns (see [53]), not only periodical. The mechanism working in the model ( [53]) is based on the presence of long-range interactions.…”