Nonlinear dynamics in early biological morphogenesis

摘要

Bioloical pattern formation is so far largely unexplained. Recently several pattern forming gradients have been established in early embryos, thus raising the issue that a fundamental "pattern gene", or gene cluster, may exist. However, the interpretation of positional information along a gradient requires systems with a highly nonlinear response (high Hill number), a feature found in single cells long before the emergence of multicellular organisms. Such highly nonlinear systems are equally prone to yield such pattern formation phenomena like oscillations, waves and Turing structures, and thus nonlinear dynamics mat be as essential for a spatio-temporal organization as are specific gene clusters.