Cellular Self-Organization Flashcards
Define symmetry breaking
What properties does self-feedback product?
Robustness and bistability
What properties does feedback between entities produce?
Spatio-temporal patterning
What causes Turing patterns?
Reaction-diffusion of morphogens
What does the Gierer-Meinhardt model show?
Diffusible inhibitor
a is a short-range autocatalytic substance = activator
h is its long-range antagonist = inhibitor.
What is the limiting component of the diffusible inhibitor? ***
If activator inhibits the substrate, the substrate will be depleted
This occurs in cell polarity
How do patterns appear?
Patterns emerge from homogeneous states
Different patterns can appear after partial ablation
Define ultradian oscillation
Oscillations around 2-3hours
What occurs under ultradian oscillations?
Developmental processes
Cell proliferation
DNA damage responses
Immune responses
What is the relationship between p53 and mdm2?
Negative feedback loop
p53 causes transcription of mdm2
mdm2 inhibits p53 causing its degradation
What is p53?
Transcriptional factor that regulates genes for repair and cell death/sensescence
What is mdm2?
Ubiquitin-protein ligase
What type of oscillations does p53 show?
Sustained oscillations that are out of phase with mdm2
How can noise affect oscillations?
Noise can prevent oscillations from damping out
Noise-induced oscillations produce variable amplitudes, which increase with noise strength
What is a segmentation clock?***
The vertebrate segmentation clock is a molecular oscillator that regulates the periodicity of somite formation.
Three signalling pathways have been proposed to underlie the molecular mechanism of the oscillator, namely the Notch, Wnt and Fgf pathways.
What is the Hes gene and its alternate names?
Hairy and Enhancer of Split-1 = in mammalian systems (Her in zebrafish)
Hes genes are downstream targets of the Notch pathway that encode transcriptional repressors.
These repressors are likely to establish negative feedback loops by repressing their own transcription,
What is Hes7 and its roles?
Repressive transcription factor that targets its own promoter
Essential for somitogenesis and neurogenesis
What is Cdc42?
GTPase regulator of cell polarity and morphogenesis in eukaryotes
GTPases are activated by GEF, allowing GDP to dissociate and GTP to bind