Robustness, flexibility, and the role of lateral inhibition in the neurogenic network.
BACKGROUND
Many gene networks used by developing organisms have been conserved over long periods of evolutionary time. Why is that? We showed previously that a model of the segment polarity network in Drosophila is robust to parameter variation and is likely to act as a semiautonomous patterning module. Is this true of other networks as well?


RESULTS
We present a model of the core neurogenic network in Drosophila. Our model exhibits at least three related pattern-resolving behaviors that the real neurogenic network accomplishes during embryogenesis in Drosophila. Furthermore, we find that it exhibits these behaviors across a wide range of parameter values, with most of its parameters able to vary more than an order of magnitude while it still successfully forms our test patterns. With a single set of parameters, different initial conditions (prepatterns) can select between different behaviors in the network's repertoire. We introduce two new measures for quantifying network robustness that mimic recombination and allelic divergence and use these to reveal the shape of the domain in the parameter space in which the model functions. We show that lateral inhibition yields robustness to changes in prepatterns and suggest a reconciliation of two divergent sets of experimental results. Finally, we show that, for this model, robustness confers functional flexibility.


CONCLUSIONS
The neurogenic network is robust to changes in parameter values, which gives it the flexibility to make new patterns. Our model also offers a possible resolution of a debate on the role of lateral inhibition in cell fate specification.
Meir
Eli
E
Friday Harbor Laboratories, University of Washington, 620 University Road, Friday Harbor, WA 98250, USA.
von Dassow
George
G
Munro
Edwin
E
Odell
Garrett M
GM
D000483:Alleles; D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D019070:Cell Lineage; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000166:cytology / Q000196:embryology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D006706:Homeostasis; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000166:cytology / Q000196:embryology* / Q000378:metabolism*; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D011506:Proteins; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D012097:Repressor Proteins / Q000378:metabolism
D011506:Proteins; D012097:Repressor Proteins