title: Nutritional resources as positional information for morphogenesis in the stony coral Stylophora pistillata.
abstract: We are interested in deciphering the mechanisms for morphogenesis in the Red Sea scleractinian coral Stylophora pistillata with the help of mathematical models. Previous mathematical models for coral morphogenesis assume that skeletal growth is proportional to the amount of locally available energetic resources like diffusible nutrients and photosynthetic products. We introduce a new model which includes factors like dissolved nutrients and photosynthates, but these resources do not serve as building blocks for growth but rather provide some kind of positional information for coral morphogenesis. Depending on this positional information side branches are generated, splittings of branches take place and branch growth direction is determined. The model results are supported by quantitative comparisons with experimental data obtained from young coral colonies.
authors.affiliation: Center for Information Services and High-Performance Computing, Technische Universität Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany. michael@gsystech.de
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kücken
authors.forename: Baruch
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rinkevich
authors.forename: Lee
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shaish
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Deutsch
mesh_terms: D000824:Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D000818:Animals; D037421:Anthozoa / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development*; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005838:Genotype; D008954:Models, Biological; D009024:Morphogenesis