Impact of cell size on morphogen gradient precision
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2022-02-03
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Working Paper
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yes
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Abstract
Patterning during embryonic development is remarkably precise and reproducible. How high patterning precision is achieved is still largely elusive. Here, we use a novel simulation framework to determine the impact of cell size on the variability of morphogen gradients and the positional information they convey. We find that both variability in the cell diameter and spatial averaging of the local concentration affect the sensed gradient variability only little. In contrast, the mean cell diameter has a profound impact on gradient variability and on the resulting positional accuracy. We reveal the corresponding scaling relationships between positional error, cell diameter and gradient length. Consistent with this observation, apical cell areas are small in tissues that are patterned by morphogen gradients. We conclude that tissues achieve higher patterning precision with small cross-sectional cell areas.
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published
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Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
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03791 - Iber, Dagmar / Iber, Dagmar
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170930 - A 3D Cell-Based Simulation Framework for Morphogenetic Problems (SNF)
Related publications and datasets
Is supplemented by: https://git.bsse.ethz.ch/iber/Publications/2022_adelmann_vetter_cell_size