title: Models for pattern formation in somitogenesis: a marriage of cellular and molecular biology.
abstract: Somitogenesis, the process by which a bilaterally symmetric pattern of cell aggregations is laid down in a cranio-caudal sequence in early vertebrate development, provides an excellent model study for the coupling of interactions at the molecular and cellular level. Here, we review some of the key experimental results and theoretical models related to this process. We extend a recent chemical pre-pattern model based on the cell cycle Journal of Theoretical Biology 207 (2000) 305-316, by including cell movement and show that the resultant model exhibits the correct spatio-temporal dynamics of cell aggregation. We also postulate a model to account for the recently observed spatio-temporal dynamics at the molecular level.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Mathematical Biology, Mathematical Institute, 24-29 St Giles', Oxford OX1 3LB, UK. schnell@maths.ox.ac.uk
authors.forename: Santiago
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schnell
authors.forename: Philip K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Maini
authors.forename: Daragh
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: McInerney
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Gavaghan
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Houston
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019521:Body Patterning / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D002449:Cell Aggregation / Q000235:genetics; D002452:Cell Count; D002453:Cell Cycle; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002465:Cell Movement; D006801:Humans; D008433:Mathematics; D008954:Models, Biological; D019170:Somites / Q000166:cytology*