Avalanche of bifurcations and hysteresis in a model of cellular differentiation.
Cellular differentiation in a developing organism is studied via a discrete bistable reaction-diffusion model. A system of undifferentiated cells is allowed to receive an inductive signal emanating from its environment. Depending on the form of the nonlinear reaction kinetics, this signal can trigger a series of bifurcations in the system. Differentiation starts at the surface where the signal is received and either cells change type up to a given distance or, under other conditions, the differentiation process propagates throughout the whole domain. When the signal diminishes, hysteresis is observed.
Fáth
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Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HE, England.
Domański
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D000818:Animals; D055592:Biophysical Phenomena; D001703:Biophysics; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D004058:Diffusion; D004330:Drosophila; D007700:Kinetics; D008954:Models, Biological; D008962:Models, Theoretical