title: Is a persistent global bias necessary for the establishment of planar cell polarity?
abstract: Planar cell polarity (PCP)--the coordinated polarisation of a whole field of cells within the plane of a tissue-relies on the interaction of three modules: a global module that couples individual cellular polarity to the tissue axis, a local module that aligns the axis of polarisation of neighbouring cells, and a readout module that directs the correct outgrowth of PCP-regulated structures such as hairs and bristles. While much is known about the molecular components that are required for PCP, the functional details of--and interactions between--the modules remain unclear. In this work, we perform a mathematical and computational analysis of two previously proposed computational models of the local module (Amonlirdviman et al., Science, 307, 2005; Le Garrec et al., Dev. Dyn., 235, 2006). Both models can reproduce wild-type and mutant phenotypes of PCP observed in the Drosophila wing under the assumption that a tissue-wide polarity cue from the global module persists throughout the development of PCP. We demonstrate that both models can also generate tissue-level PCP when provided with only a transient initial polarity cue. However, in these models such transient cues are not sufficient to ensure robustness of the resulting cellular polarisation.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Mathematical Medicine and Biology, School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom. Sabine.Fischer@physikalischebiologie.de
authors.forename: Sabine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fischer
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Houston
authors.forename: Nicholas A M
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Monk
authors.forename: Markus R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Owen
mesh_terms: D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000378:metabolism; D016764:Cell Polarity; D005246:Feedback; D008954:Models, Biological