Reaction–diffusion microtubule concentration patterns occur during biological morphogenesis
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- 作者：Papaseit ; Cyril ; Vuillard ; Laurent ; Tabony ; James
- 关键词：Biological self-organisation ; Reaction&ndash ; diffusion structures ; Dissipative structures ; Microtubules ; Drosophila embryogenesis
- 刊名：Biophysical Chemistry
- 出版年：1999
- 出版时间：May 10, 1999
- 年：1999
- 卷：79
- 期：1
- 页码：33-39
- 全文大小：879 K
文摘
Reaction–diffusion processes can lead to a macroscopic concentration pattern from an initially homogeneous solution, and thus provide a physical–chemical mechanism for biological pattern formation and morphogenesis. The central prediction of reaction–diffusion theory is that the patterns contain periodic concentration variations in some of the reactives. Microtubules assembled in vitro spontaneously self-organise and form stationary striped macroscopic structures. In agreement with reaction–diffusion theory. Here we show, in agreement with reaction–diffusion theory, that these preparations contain substantial microtubule concentration variations. Similar striped microtubule patterns arise during Drosophila embryogenesis. A characteristic of these patterns is their dependence on sample dimensions. In Drosophila eggs shortened by ligation, we found that the microtubule pattern varied with egg fragment length in the same way as the in vitro microtubule pattern varied with sample length, and as expected from theory. This is evidence that reaction–diffusion structures occur during Drosophila morphogenesis.